THE FRESHMEN
by RRT
Summary: What happens when Lizzie does not want to be more than friends with Gordo. Chapter 10 is up. Please RR
1. The Summers Over

AN: This is my first fanfic. Actually it is the first thing I have ever written that was no assigned to me in class. Oh well I hope you like it. Please R/R.  
  
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Lizzie McGuire or Disney.  
  
Chapter 1: Summers Over  
  
Lizzie awoke from a restless night of sleep. She looked over at her clock, and was surprised to see that it was only 8:23 am. During the summer she would normally sleep until noon unless her mother or the alarm, preferably her mom, woke her up first. This summer, however, was extremely different. Both of her best friends were away exploring different parts of the world. Miranda was visiting her relatives in Mexico, and Gordo was touring America with his grandmother. It would not have mattered if they were home, because she was still paying for her own adventure in Rome. She had faked being sick, snuck out of the hotel, and impersonated Isabella Parichie, a famous European pop star. Although she had the time of her life, she had spent the past two months locked up in her house, grounded. She had to help her father paint her room, organize a garage sale, and many other chores her parents could think of. Her parents had decided to go easy on her in her last week of punishment, and they were going to allow Miranda to come over tonight once she got back in town.  
  
Lizzie sat up in her bed, and whipped her eyes. She looked over at the stack of notebooks, pens, and pencils sitting on her desk. She could not believe it. Only one more day until school started. One more day and she would be free from her prison. One more day until she saw him again.  
  
As Lizzie moved her head slightly, she could see her picture of Gordo sitting next to her school supplies. They had been friends since the day he was born. She could hardly think of a time when he was not at her side telling her useless information, or spouting on about how she and Miranda should not worry what other people think. As the last school year closed it became more and more evident that Gordo had a crush on her, and while in Rome, Lizzie realized she had feelings for him too.  
  
Lizzie got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. "What are you doing up so early, you little weasel?" Lizzie barked at her brother Matt.  
  
"Oh nothing," Matt responded, "I just have a lot of things to do to get ready for school tomorrow."  
  
"This is not good," Lizzie thought to herself. "Matt never gets up this early, and mom takes care of everything he needs for school, he is defiantly up to something." Pulling up a stool next to him, Lizzie sat down and poured a bowl of cereal. As she ate, both of her parents came down the stairs. Her dad was running late, and in a furry trying to get everything together. Her mom greeted them with her usual happy voice. Lizzie could never understand how her mother could be so cheerful in the morning.  
  
Just as Lizzie had finished her breakfast the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," shouted Lizzie. She rushed to the door hoping it was Miranda back early. As she opened the door her mood quickly went downhill.  
  
"What do you want?" Lizzie snapped as she saw that it was their paperboy.  
  
His name was Ronny, and he had been her first boyfriend. He had dumped her for a girl at his school. Lizzie never quite got over the experience. She knew his schedule, and went to her room every time he came around to collect. She was so excited about seeing Miranda again that she forgot that it was collection week.  
  
"I am collecting," replied Ronny trying not to upset Lizzie anymore than she already was.  
  
"Dad, it's the paper boy," Lizzie screamed. She then turned around and stared at Ronny as though he was a prisoner, and she was the guard.  
  
Ronny already knew the answer, but asked anyways. "I guess you are still mad at me?"  
  
"Well lets see, you go out with me for a week, give me my first kiss, and then dump me for another girl at school. You bet I am still mad at you," replied Lizzie. "And to make it even worse you said you wanted to be friends, but you have not made a single effort to be my friend. So I guess you were just lying to me."  
  
Before Ronny could answer, Mr. McGuire came down the stairs, and handed Ronny some money and kept walking out the door. He had no time to stop, he was really running late now.  
  
"Well I guess I will see you tomorrow," Ronny said as he turned to leave.  
  
"Why would you see me tomorrow, you don't collect for another month." Lizzie questioned in a more civilized voice.  
  
"You are going to Hillridge High next year right?" Lizzie nodded yes. "Well both of our schools feed into HHS. I thought you knew," Ronny replied.  
  
Lizzie had had enough talking to Ronny. She let out a big "UH" and slammed the door. As fast as she could she ran up the stairs and opened her desk drawer. She was in desperate need of cheering up so she took out the letters and postcards her friends had sent her.  
  
Lizzie was kind of glad that her friends had gone away for the summer. This way they would write to her, something they probably would not do as much if they were in town. Miranda had written once a week like clockwork. Every letter was a couple of pages long. Gordo on the other had, had sent numerous postcard from various places he visited, and they came sporadically throughout the week.  
  
Lizzie jumped on her bed and spread the letters and postcard out in front of her. She dove into the letters from Miranda. It sounded like she was having the time of her life. Miranda talked about the temples and ruins she had visited, the food, and the museums. It was obvious that Miranda had not seen the International Video Music Awards. Miranda would have surly written about that. As soon as she started to read the letters Lizzie began feeling better.  
  
After awhile, Lizzie got tired of Miranda's letters, and switched to Gordo's postcards. Most of them were from historical places or national parks. Lizzie could not imagine spending the summer looking at battlefields and such, but she was sure that Gordo was enjoying every second of it. Lizzie did like the pictures on the postcards. Her favorite was one from Yellowstone; it had three buffalo walking in a snow-covered meadow. Although the pictures were beautiful, she really liked what Gordo wrote on the back. He always said that he was having a great time, and gave some useless information about the place he was visiting like the fact that unlike the rumor the bodies of the construction workers at Hoover Dam were never left in the concrete, that would have weakened the concrete. Lizzie really did not care about the strength of the concrete, but it was typical Gordo and it made her laugh.  
  
Lizzie read and reread the letters and postcards. Soon she was again laughing at Miranda's jokes and gazing in to the pictures on the postcards. Suddenly she heard he mother calling her from downstairs. "I will be there in a second," Lizzie replied.  
  
"You got another postcard from Gordo," her mothers voiced boomed.  
  
Lizzie jumped out of bed, threw open her bedroom door, and began to run down the stairs as fast as she could. When she was almost to the first floor she noticed two buckets had been placed on the next to last step. "Oh no this is going to hurt," she thought to herself. Lizzie was known for being a klutz, and this situation had disaster written all over it. Just as Lizzie approached the buckets she jumped up into the air to avoid them. To her surprise she landed safely on her feet, and because she was not wearing shoes, just socks, she slid across the floor like Tom Cruse.  
  
"Matt," her mom yelled, "get down here and pick up these buckets." She then turned to Lizzie and in a more gentle voice "Honey what was that? I thought you going to fly right out the front door when I saw those buckets there. And why are you still in you pajamas, it's two in the afternoon?"  
  
Lizzie looked at the buckets, then to her feet, and then back to her mom. "I don't know what happened. One minute I was flying down the stairs and the next I was sliding across the floor." Lizzie just kept looking around with a look of astonishment on her face. "Wait," she said suddenly, "it's already 2 pm." Lizzie could not believe it. She had been in her room for five hours reading the letters.  
  
"It sure is, you had better get ready Miranda could be here any minute." Jo handed Lizzie the postcard and headed towards the kitchen.  
  
Just then there was knock at the front door. Lizzie turned and opened it.  
  
"It must be nice to be able to sleep until 2."  
  
Lizzie could not believe it. It was Miranda. "AAAHHHH" Lizzie screamed at the top of her voice as she grabbed Miranda and threw her arms around her. Finally after 4 months she was back. "I have missed you so much."  
  
"I missed you to," replied Miranda.  
  
The two hugged for about a minute, and then finally Miranda let go. "I got a message from your mom that said you were grounded all summer what did you do this time?"  
  
"Come on, I'll show you." Lizzie motioned for Miranda to follow her into the living room. "Have a seat, I'll be right over." Lizzie walked to the VCR and placed a tape inside. On her way back to the couch where Miranda was seated, she picked up a CD case off the coffee table.  
  
"Well her it goes," Lizzie started. "When I was in Rome, I played sick. Then when everybody else left each day, I snuck out of my room to hang out with an Italian boy. Here look at this." Lizzie handed over the Pallo and Isabella CD case to Miranda.  
  
"Wow," Miranda said in a moment of shock. "Is that you?"  
  
"No, that is Isabella, she looks just like me. That's Pallo the boy I was sneaking off to be with. They are both Italian pop stars."  
  
"So you were sneaking off with a boy in Rome, and your parents grounded you for the entire summer? That's so unfair," returned Miranda still with at good deal of shock in her voice.  
  
"It would be if that is all that I did, but here," Lizzie grabbed the remote and pressed the play button. Suddenly the weather channel disappeared and there was Lizzie coming onto the stage in the Coliseum. "That's me."  
  
Miranda just watched in wonder. Occasionally she asked Lizzie what was going on, but Lizzie just smiled. The only sound she made was a snicker when Pallo suddenly lost his ability to sing.  
  
"Well what did you think?" Lizzie finally said after her performance was over.  
  
Miranda just sat in awe. Her eyes sat focused on the now blank TV screen. After a few seconds she turned to Lizzie, "That.. That was awesome. When did you learn to sing and dance like that?"  
  
"Thanks," replied Lizzie. "I practiced the dance moves the day before, but I did not know I was going to be singing until Isabella asked me to on stage.  
  
The two began talking feverishly about the experience. Lizzie told Miranda everything. How she had met Pallo at the Trevi Fountain, how Gordo had convinced her to fake being sick, the night Pallo had taken her to the gardens and they watched the firework. Both the girls got a lot of good laughs about Lizzie's shopping experience.  
  
The two talked forever, and before they knew it, it was suppertime. As usual Miranda had received an invitation to stay and eat with the McGuire's, which she happily accepted. Lizzie on the other hand was not invited to the table. Instead, she was sent to her room to change, as she was still wearing her pajamas.  
  
After Lizzie returned downstairs with a new outfit on, the two girls resumed their high pitch conversation about Rome. Nobody else at the table could get a word in, although Matt tried to interject fabricated accounts of what had happened to both Lizzie's and her parent's displeasure. Lizzie finally had enough with her brother after he added that crazy fans had chopped off Pallo's head after he left the concert and marched it around the city.  
  
"That's it you little weasel!" Lizzie shouted suddenly. "I have had enough of your little additions. If you speak one more time, I am going to cut off your head and march it around the neighborhood. You got it?"  
  
"Stop it, the both of you," Lizzie's mother interrupted. "Matt go to your room, we will discuss your punishment later. Lizzie, finish your meal."  
  
But neither Lizzie nor Miranda was hungry after thinking about Pallo's severed head. Both put up their plates and returned to the living room to continue their discussion.  
Miranda was the first to speak. "So how did you know it was a set up, and wasn't Isabella mad that you were impersonating her."  
  
"No, Isabella was not mad at me. She understood that I thought I was helping her, but she was furious with Pallo." Lizzie again started to snicker as she remembered how Isabella had yelled at Pallo after the concert. "But it was Gordo who had found Isabella while waiting for his flight, and told her everything. Isabella brought him back, and they both told me right before I was to go on stage." Lizzie paused for a moment and then suddenly yelled, "GORDO."  
  
"What about him," Miranda replied in a confused tone, but it was to late, Lizzie had already left the room. Miranda jumped off the couch and followed her to the entry hall. When she got their Lizzie was looking at a picture. "What is that?" Miranda asked.  
  
"It's the latest postcard from Gordo. I forgot about it when you came over. It isn't a normal postcard is it?" Instead of a picture of some sight Gordo was visiting, it was a picture of all three of them at Grubby Gulch. Lizzie turned the picture over, and read the inscription on the back.  
  
My grandmother and I are at Yosemite National Park, and should be home  
in a few days. We got here to late to buy a postcard, so I thought  
this would do. Did you know that trees here grow so big that they  
actually cut a hole in one so that cars could pass through? It fell  
over though in a snowstorm.  
  
Gordo  
  
P.S. We need to go out sometime  
  
"Well that was romantic," Lizzie said in a disappointed voice as her smile left her face.  
  
"What is romantic? Did he get a girlfriend since I left?"  
  
Lizzie had yet to tell Miranda about Gordo's and her relationship. She knew how she would feel if it were Gordo and Miranda, and she could not push herself to telling Miranda.  
  
"Well, yea he kinda did." Lizzie replied with an uneasy voice. "I didn't know how to tell you, but I kinda kissed him in Rome." Lizzie drew back waiting for the verbal assault that she was sure to receive.  
  
"When, where, give me all the details." Miranda said completely unaffected by the fact that her two best friends were now involved.  
Lizzie started walking back to the living room as she began her explanation. "He began acting weird not to long after you left. I figured it out a while latter, near the end of the year. But I did not know how I felt about him until while I was dancing on stage. After all that he had done for me and he was sill there giving me strength, and boy did I need strengths that night. So during the after party, he and I snuck up to the roof. It was so beautiful, so I leaned over and kissed him."  
  
"That is SO romantic. I knew you two were going to get together. You two are perfect for each other."  
  
"Well I do like him, and it was romantic," Lizzie's tone toke a dramatic turn for the worse, "but this is the first time he as said anything about that, and it is so unromantic."  
  
Miranda took the picture from Lizzie and began reading the back. "Well what did you expect, its Gordo?" Miranda said after finishing the text.  
  
"I know, I just thought that after kissing me that his romantic side would come out." The disappointment was evident in Lizzie's voice.  
  
This new information dominated the rest of the night's topics. Miranda tried to convince Lizzie that she should give Gordo a chance. The two talked into the night.  
  
"Listen, you two are perfect for each other. Just give him some time." Miranda paused to give out a big yawn and then continued. "I'm outtie. I have been up since three this morning. I need some rest."  
  
The two hugged and said their goodbyes, and Lizzie was again alone with her thoughts. 


	2. The First Day

Chapter 2: The First Day  
  
Lizzie was the first to arrive at the bus stop. She could not believe that she was again forced to ride the bus. Last year her parents had let her walk to school, but the high school was ten miles away. The only way to stop riding the bus was for her to get her license, which was still a few years away.  
  
Other people soon began to arrive at the stop. Many were sophomores, whom she knew from two years ago. Lizzie never talked to anybody other than to say hi, she was nervously pacing back and forth.  
  
"You had coffee this morning, didn't you?" said a familiar voice behind her.  
  
Lizzie instantly recognized Miranda's voice and turned around. "Just a little. I couldn't sleep all night. I kept thinking about what I should say to Gordo. I don't think I want to go out with him anymore." Lizzie looked down at her feet admitting that she had used her head not her heart in making her decision.  
  
"But I thought you liked him."  
  
Lizzie nervously played with her hands, "I do, but I just don't think it is a good idea. I mean you saw what he wrote on the postcard. I don't think I could deal with that type of romance."  
  
"But you like him. Go for it." Miranda's voice was soft and sweet.  
  
"That's no all," Lizzie continued, "I saw Ronny yesterday, and the pain of being dumped still hurt me. There is no way that I could be friends with him again, and I don't want that to happen to me and Gordo. Just being away from him this summer was hard enough." Lizzie wiped away a tear that had begun to travel down her face.  
  
Miranda gave Lizzie a big hug. She knew that Lizzie and Gordo belonged together, but maybe now was not the time.  
  
Soon the bus arrived, and everybody got on. Once onboard Lizzie became more sociable, talking to everybody about his or her summers. She soon figured out that everybody else only cared about her summer. Talking about her experience soon put Lizzie in a better mood.  
  
Before anybody realized it, the bus had pulled up to their new school. Lizzie and Miranda looked at the Gothic red brick exterior in amazement. In just a few minutes they would be transformed from kids to HIGH SCHOOLERS.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda walked towards the school talking about all the new experiences they were about to have. Concerts, driving, staying out late, Miranda almost said boys, but knew Lizzie did not want to talk about that subject.  
  
The two opened the front doors and stood in amazement of the new world they had just entered. The two could barley see the hard wood floor of the hallway thought the crowd. Unlike their former school, the High school was packed full of students.  
  
"So this is it?" Lizzie said quietly to Miranda.  
  
"Yeah, no wonder Gordo only stayed one day."  
  
"Listen just remember what he told us. All we have to do is stay out of the main hallways and we will be ok. Come on lets go find our lockers"  
  
The two pushed their way trough the crowd and quickly ducked into one of the side hallways. Immediately the crowd thinned and the two began exploring the school. They soon found their lockers on the other side of the school, which amazingly were only two lockers apart.  
  
The first order of business was to decorate the lockers, and Lizzie and Miranda quickly began. Along with the usual mirror, Lizzie was hanging up pictures of her friends, and some of Gordo postcards, along with other colorful items. Miranda was doing the same, this year she devoted the locker door to all the cool places in Mexico she had taken pictures of.  
  
"Oh my gosh," Miranda blurted out. Coming down the hall just over Lizzie's shoulder was Ethan Craft. His hair was just a perfect as she remembered, and she would normally go weak at the sight. Both her and Lizzie had huge crushes on him since the beginning of the seventh grade. Somehow over the summer the unthinkable had happened, right next to him was Kate Sanders. The two were walking down the hall holding hands. This was torture for Miranda. Seeing the biggest hottie in school, not to mention Miranda's crush, holding hands with her archenemy. She could hardly look at the two.  
  
Lizzie turned around, took a quick look, and turned back to Miranda. "Oh yeah, they got back together in Rome."  
  
Miranda stated in shock. The only person who had a bigger crush on Ethan was Lizzie, and now she did not even care that he was with their former friend. "What do you mean 'Back together,' when were they first together?"  
  
"Well they went on one date at the end of last year, but broke up that night. I think that they reconciled in Rome. And a lot of things have changed over the summer," Lizzie explained as she put the finishing touches on her locker.  
  
Just before Miranda could reply, the girls were interrupted by the most beautiful voice they had ever heard. "Lizzie, busted out of the big house!" Hearing Ethan's voice again, made Lizzie's feelings toward Ethan return. She knew that she should not feel this way towards him. She was still struggling with her feelings towards Gordo, and did not have room for Ethan.  
  
"Hi Lizzie, Miranda," Kate chimed in, "We just saw Gordo, and he told me to tell you that he really wants to talk to you." This was an unusual move for Kate. Normally she would take this opportunity to remind Lizzie and Miranda of their low social status, and her enormous popularity.  
  
"Hi Kate, hi Ethan," Lizzie replied. "Thanks for the message." Before Lizzie could say anything else the bell sounded. "Oh, we have to get to class. Talk to you later." Lizzie shut her locker, and headed down the hall with Miranda just behind.  
  
_________________________  
  
Gordo walked through the familiar halls. He had only attended classes at Hillridge High for one day last fall, but the strange feelings associated with going to a new school still filled Gordo.  
  
Gordo opened up his locker assignment. "Great," he thought to himself, "locker number 152." The same broken locker he had last fall. He approached his locker, and started tuning the lock. Just as he suspected the locker would not open. He tried again, but still no luck. All summer he had been waiting to return to high school. This time he would be with his friends, and people who know him. As it was he was back to being surrounded by the upper clansmen, who made his day at HHS miserable. Just to make maters worse Miss Ungermeyer, was walking his way.  
  
"Mr. Gordon," she said in her eerie cheerful voice, "welcome back to high school. I trust that you will be staying with us for more than a day this time."  
  
"I hope so," Gordo replied. "I don't have any reasons to go back to junior high this time," although he was thinking about it. He continued to look around hoping to see somebody, anybody he knew. "I am wondering, were is everybody? I haven't seen a single freshman all morning."  
  
"Well they normally put all you mouth feeders at the other end of the building, near the freshman classes," she answered. "I looked at your file last week and saw that you are taking more challenging classes, so I moved you to this locker which is closer to your classes. For some reason this locker is almost never assigned."  
  
As usual, Gordo replied with a direct answer. "It could be because it won't open."  
  
Miss Ungermeyer gave Gordo a puzzled look. "That's nonsense, you just have to persuade it." She made a fist with her had and slammed the side of it against the locker door. The locker door slowly began to open just as smooth as the day it was installed.  
  
"If that's persuasion," Gordo thought, "I don't want to see her being forceful  
  
"Well good luck to you Gordon. Now I have to go take care of something." Turning her attention away from Gordo, Miss Ungermeyer began yelling, "Hay you to get away from each other. You don't do that in front of your parents do you?"  
  
As Gordo watched Miss Ungermeyer walk away, he could not help but laugh. Although he and Miss Ungermeyer did not get off to a good start in Rome, it seemed that he just might make it trough high school with her as the principal after all.  
  
Gordo turned back to his locker, and placed his notebooks inside the locker. He slammed the locker door shut and headed towards the bookstore. He had just enough time to pick up his books before his first class.  
  
The hall outside the store was crowded, but at least he knew people standing in line. Gordo tired to make small talk with the people staining in line but had little luck. Everybody around him kept talking about Lizzie. As the chattering spread some began singing "What Dreams Are Made Of." Even more people joined in and before long some began imitating Lizzie's dance routine. Gordo began looking around. Hopefully Lizzie would hear this and come in to see what was going on. He had no luck, the only escape from the madness was Kate and Ethan.  
  
While waiting in line the three began talking about each other's summers. Gordo felt weird; normally he would be having this conversation with Lizzie and Miranda, not Ethan and Kate.  
  
The three talked about their summers. Ethan and Kate seemed to be inseparable after Rome. Spending most of their time in Italian restaurants. This was driving Kate crazy trying to figure out ways to stay together without eating too many carbs. Nonetheless, the two were completely happy together.  
  
Gordo was eager to replay his adventures across the country, although most of the history that he had seen was lost on Ethan.  
  
The conversation inevitably changed to Lizzie. Kate was just waiting for a good piece of gossip to spread around the school. She never got the chance. Gordo avoided giving any direct answers to the questions. Not because he still did not fully trust Kate, but mainly because he did not know himself. Starting to really miss Lizzie, Gordo pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He opened it up and began reading the contents to himself.  
  
Almost immediately Kate noticed the paper. "What's that," she demanded.  
  
"Oh ah, nothing," replied Gordo as he quickly folded the paper and stuffed it back into his pocket. He was now in front of the store. He handed his class schedule to the clerk. As the clerk began stacking his books, Gordo turned to Kate and Ethan. "If either of you see Lizzie will you tell her I need to speak to her?" He turned back to the clerk, grabbed his books and started walking back to his locker.  
  
_________________________  
  
Lizzie and Miranda could not find their first class and as such they arrived five minutes late. They were not the only ones, only two thirds of the class was already there. The teacher did not mind, this was a usual occurrence on the first day, she waited for the final students to arrive before beginning her speech. It was just like every other first day speech. She read the syllabus and discussed the class rules. It was boring but nobody minded, everybody was glad to have one easy day at the beginning of the school year.  
  
Lizzie started reading ahead in the syllabus. It was only English, one quick read through and she understood all the rules, and assignment dates. After finishing, she pulled out a piece of paper and began writhing on it. She figured that because of how nice Kate was to her earlier that it would be ok to fill Miranda in on their new relationship. After she finished she passed the piece of paper to Miranda who began reading it.  
  
Hay Miranda, I just thought that I should fill you in on something  
else that happened in Rome. I was rooming with Kate. She soon  
figured out what I was up to. She never told anybody, and even helped  
me. She told me that she would help me if I never told anybody that  
she was helping me, and after we returned she would be the popular one  
again. After a while she was the only one I could talk to about what  
was going on. Gordo was jealous, so he would not sit through my  
stories. I think that she and I cleaned up some of our issues. I  
don't want to be friends with her, but I really don't want to be  
enemies anymore. Hope this clears up what happened this morning.  
Please don't tell anybody.  
  
Miranda was in shock. It did explain why Kate never insulted the two earlier. She was relived to know that Kate would not be bothering them anymore, and so she agreed not to tell anybody.  
  
After English, the two had American History. The class was again a typical first day class. Next the two hurried across the school to their science class. Unlike the first two classes they had attended, the teacher actually began lecturing, and to the dismay of the students homework was assigned.  
  
Just as Lizzie could not take any more the bell rang and it was time for lunch. The two hurried through the crowd on their way to the cafeteria. The cafeteria was about three times larger than their old cafeteria in junior high, but twice as crowded.  
  
"Who ever heard of a school without a place to eat lunch outside," Miranda complained. The crowd and the noise was unbearable, not to mention the large line for food.  
  
"Probably the same people that thought Wednesday was a good day to start school." Lizzie replied.  
  
The two waited in the large line. Surprisingly the line mover rather quickly, due in part to the large serving area, which was the only improvement the two could see. The girls soon had their food, and were back out in the crowded eating area.  
  
"I can't believe that they are still serving us these frozen pizza thingies," Lizzie said to Miranda as they walked.  
  
"You could have gotten the Salisbury Stake," Miranda sarcastically replied.  
  
"Ugh, that is like the worst food that you can get from a cafeteria." Lizzie just shuttered at the thought of eating that. "Oh look there is Gordo."  
  
The two made their way to the table that Gordo was sitting at. As they approached Miranda had an idea. She made a few gestures at Lizzie who quickly understood. The two walked up behind Gordo and each one put a hand around his head and covered his eyes. This had no effect on Gordo, who just kept eating.  
  
"Hello, this is the part where you are supposed to guess who it is." Miranda was quickly losing patience with him.  
  
"Well in that case I would have to go with Britney and J. Lo," Gordo replied with his usual lack of emotion.  
  
"Well thank you," Lizzie said as she walked around the table and took her seat with a large smile on her face.  
  
"So Gordo, when did you get back in town?' Miranda asked.  
  
"I just got back this morning. I just had time to shower and change cloths before my mom drove me to school. How was your summer?" Gordo asked in return.  
  
"It was great, Mexico is a cool country."  
  
The three continued to share stories about their summer adventures throughout lunch. Miranda could not stop talking about the Mayan step pyramids that she had visited. Gordo on the other hand had seen so many things, and he was able to recall minute details about every one. Lizzie just sat and listened to the wonderful things that her friends had done over the summer. She had already heard all of the stories from their letters, but she knew that they had not heard from each other, so she let them talk. Lizzie just felt better being back with her two best friends at last.  
  
The lunch period at the high school was fifteen minutes longer than at the junior high. The trio soon found that they had finished their food with plenty of time to spare. They were not the only ones, many students had already returned their trays, and were heading back into the hallways.  
  
Gordo had tried to bring Rome into the conversation, but Lizzie kept rejecting it. Thinking that she did not understand what he was wanting to talk about, he decided to try something different. "Well I don't know where my next class is. I think I will go find it," Gordo said with perfect clarity, but as he continued it was clear that he was nervous. "Do you want to come with me Lizzie?" Both Lizzie and Miranda knew what he was saying, and Miranda was willing to let her go.  
  
"No, I actually have to," Lizzie looked around quickly trying to find a way out. "Go get our books," she quickly added. "We have not gotten them yet." Lizzie grabbed Miranda as she got up, and the two returned their trays before heading out of the cafeteria.  
  
"What was that about," Miranda asked once Gordo was out of sight. "Why didn't you go with him, he was going to ask you out?"  
  
"That's WHY I did not go with him," Lizzie replied as sadness filled her voice. "I still don't know what I am going to say."  
  
"You could say YES," Miranda suggested with a bit of sarcasm that she was famous for.  
  
The bookstore was just around the corner from the cafeteria. When the two arrived, the line was still as long as it had been before school. The two leaned up against the lockers while they waited for those in front of them to collect their books. As they waited, Lizzie noticed a boy walking towards them.  
  
"Oh great, two days in a row," Lizzie moaned.  
  
Before Miranda could question Lizzie's remark she noticed the boy too, it was Ronny. Miranda had never actually met him, but recognized him from a picture Lizzie had shown her while they were going out.  
  
"Hay Lizzie," Ronny said with a smile on his face. Lizzie was not smiling, she was just staring back at him. "Well, I just want to say I am sorry, I do want to be your friend. Well........ sorry." Ronny realized that he was just digging himself into a bigger hole, so he turned and walked away.  
  
Miranda was in shock. She had never seen Lizzie act like this before. Normally she was either polite and would at least talk to the person, or if provoked she would return an insult, but she just stood there without saying a word. "What's with you, why did you just stand there?"  
  
"I just can't stand that guy," was the only response Miranda received.  
  
Miranda changed the subject by commenting on the outfits of a couple of sophomores that had just passed them. Soon Lizzie had broken out of her bad mood, and her cheerful smile once again appeared. Soon the two girls had their books and were rushing to class.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda did not have the same classes for the next two periods. Lizzie had finally taken Gordo's advice, and enrolled in advanced Drama for her fourth Period. Her parents had forced her to take a computer/typing course for her fifth period. They said she would need it out in the real world. Miranda on the other hand was taking choir and orchestra for her next two classes. The trio did have math class together for the final period. Gordo had convinced Lizzie and Miranda that they could both handle Geometry. The two did not want to, but it was the only way that they could all have a class together. Finally after much persuasion, and Gordo's commitment to help the girls, they had agreed.  
  
When Lizzie entered the math room, she saw that Miranda and Gordo had already arrived. The two were talking, and did not notice her. As she entered the room, Lizzie was surprised to see that the room had been covered with posters, and charts that reminded her of a 6th grade classroom, not an advanced math room. As she approached her friends, they soon realized she was in the room.  
  
"Lizzie I saved you a seat," Gordo announced as he removed his bag from the seat next to him.  
  
This surprised Lizzie. Normally her two friends would have placed her in the middle, so that they could both sit next to her. She did not mind being on the side it was just different.  
  
"Thanks," Lizzie replied as she took her seat. "I can't wait for this day to be over. The only good thing is that we don't have to take gym until our junior year. I can not remember the last time that I spent an entire day at school without stepping foot in the gym."  
  
"Last year, when we got half the day of for Miss Dew's Mural of Unity," Gordo instinctively replied.  
  
"Ok, where do you keep this stuff," Miranda asked as she looked all over his head, as if she was actually looking for the useless knowledge part of his brain.  
  
Gordo just ignored her. He was use to his friends making fun of his inelegance. "What about the rules. Have you had any problems with the seniors?"  
  
"Well, no. I completely forgot about that." Lizzie replied. "Well then there are two things that went well today."  
  
Just then a short lady walked into the room. It was their new trig teacher Mrs. Bell. She looked around the room and began reading the role.  
  
Lizzie looked around at the classroom once again, and noticed that the class seamed extremely small. There were a total of only ten students in the room. At first Lizzie thought that it was because it was so far from the rest of the freshman classes and everybody was running late. As Mrs. Bell continued down the role, nobody was absent, nobody that is until she reached Larry Tudgeman.  
  
"Tudgeman is in four of my classes, and did not show to a single one. I wonder where he is?" Gordo quietly asked.  
  
"Maybe the mother ship finally came and took him away," Miranda stated with all sincerity.  
  
Lizzie and Gordo both broke into laughter. Mrs. Bell just ignored the two.  
  
The final period of the day sailed by. Mrs. Bell really had a way of talking that made Lizzie want to listen. The only other teacher that had made her feel like this was Mr. Dig. She hoped that it would stay like this throughout the entire year.  
  
When the final bell of the day had rung, the trio left the class together. "I gotta, go," Miranda started. "The first Glee Club meeting is in five minutes."  
  
"Call me when you get home," Lizzie said as Miranda started down the hallway.  
"Lizzie can I talk to you for a sec," Gordo asked. The panic had again returned to his voice."  
  
Lizzie new that she would have to confront him sooner or later. She thought for a second, and replied, "I guess so. What's up?"  
  
Gordo took a deep breath, and started, "Well I was wondering if you would..... If you would like to.... To go do something this weekend. Like a.... you know, .......a ....... a date?"  
  
Lizzie felt so sorry for Gordo. He was trying so hard to get the words to come out. She had no idea what to say. She just stood there with a puzzled look on her face while she tried to come up with a decision.  
  
Gordo's face slowly turned red as he waited for Lizzie's answer. He had seen her do this before, and it always meant that she was thinking very hard. He had hoped that she would just say yes without thinking about it. He was now thinking very hard himself. Had he mistaken the kiss in Rome, and the one on the last day of school?  
  
"Yes, yes, yes, yes," cried a voice inside Lizzie's head. Strangely enough it was not her voice, but rather it was Miranda. Miranda had somehow entered her head and was yelling so loud that Lizzie could not hear her own thought. Finally she opened her mouth, hoping that the correct words would fall out.  
  
"I can't," she finally replied. "I'm sorry." Lizzie wiped a tear that was falling down her cheek, turned and walked away.  
  
The bus ride home was pure torture. She sat alone leaning her head against the glass. "What have I done," she kept repeating quietly to herself. She wished that Gordo had never written that final letter. She really wished Miranda was with her, "I need a hug," she thought. 


	3. The Prank War

Chapter 3: The Prank War  
  
Matt slowly snuck down the stairs, careful not to wake Lizzie or his parents. It was still early and the sun had just beginning to light the horizon. Matt slowly walked across the floor and out the back door. As he approached the tool shed he could make out the outlines of his two friends, Lanny and Melina, waiting for him.  
  
Lanny stretched his arms and opened his mouth as if he were letting out a great big yawn, but as usual no sounds came from his mouth.  
  
Lanny was Matt's best friend. The two were always thinking of the craziest things to do, most of which ended up getting them in trouble. The one true downfall of Lanny was that he is unable to speak to most people. To many, his silent gestures are meaningless, but to Matt and Melina, his gestures speak clearly for him.  
  
"I know its early Lanny," Matt replied to Lanny's yawn, "but if we want to do this we are going to need time to set up."  
  
"What are we doing," Melina demanded.  
  
She was Matt's unusual girlfriend. Instead of going out on dates the two got each other into trouble, which is the way they liked it.  
  
"Cone on, I will tell you on the way," Matt replied with an evil smile on his face.  
  
Matt opened the door to the tool shed. The three grabbed some bags that were laying on the floor, and began their journey. As soon as the group had traveled a distance from the house Matt reviled his plan.  
  
"I overheard my mom talking to the principal on the phone last week. Turns out that we are going to have a new teacher," Matt said. "My mom was concerned that I would 'do something,' when I found out."  
  
Lanny looked over and smiled at Matt.  
  
"I don't know Lanny," Matt responded to Lanny. "Where WOULD my mom get an idea like that?"  
  
Matt and Melina laughed, while Lanny just kept walking with a huge grin on his face.  
  
"So what's the plan?" Melina finally asked bringing an abrupt end to the laughter.  
  
"Well lets just say that he thinks he is ready to get his feet wet," Matt said with his usual sinister voice, "lets see what happens when we get his head wet."  
  
"That's you ingenious plan?" Melina yelled. "We were doing things like that two years ago."  
  
The trio had stopped walking as Melina continued her scolding. "I would have expected more from you, last year you were making such progress. I am embarrassed to call you my boyfriend."  
  
"Sorry," Matt replied, "I spent so much time working on the rest of the plan, that I just went for the default punch. But wait until you see the rest, you will understand."  
  
"I doubt it," Melina said under her breath. With that the trio walked the rest of the way to school without saying a word.  
  
The three arrived at Main Steer School just as the sun had broken the horizon. The shadows that were cast upon the school along with the empty parking lot gave the school an eerie feeling that was starting to scare Lanny and Matt. The three creped up to the empty school. When they approached the doors Matt reached out to open them.  
  
"There locked," Matt exclaimed as he tried to pull on the door.  
  
A look of pure aggravation fell upon Melina's face. "You thought that we were going to be able to just walk into the school this early?"  
  
"Well I.... ah..... ah."  
  
Lanny too was waving his arms and shaking his head in discuss.  
  
"Sorry Lanny, I didn't know that the school doors even had locks."  
  
"That's it, I have had enough of this," Melina barked at Matt. "I am taking over, come on."  
  
The trio walked around the corner, and Melina picked up a stick on their way. Once they were behind the wall, they waited until the janitor arrived at the school. He walked up to the doors, and unlocked one using a key from his huge key ring. As soon as he entered the building, Melina ran around the corner, and was able to slide the stick in front of the door jam, thus preventing the door from closing.  
  
"Come on," Melina ordered, taking her new role as leader very seriously.  
  
The two boys soon followed, and were now inside the building. The halls were unfamiliarly quiet as the group headed towards their new classroom. The three slowly walked down the dark hallways. After taking a few wrong turns in the dark, they finally found their new classroom. Matt slowly walked to the door and grabbed the handle and turned it. To his surprise it opened.  
  
"See I figured out some things," Matt scoffed at Melina while looking proud, and hiding his astonishment.  
  
"Looks more like dumb luck to me," Melina replied as she walked into the room.  
  
Lanny and Matt followed Melina into the room and began their work using flashlights instead of turning on the lights. Lanny was positioned as lookout, which came in handy when the janitor came and cleaned the trashcans. Matt and Melina stacked some desks forming a latter allowing the two to access the aria above the suspended ceiling tiles. An hour later the three emerged from the room. They snuck out one of the back doors and waited for the rest of the kids to arrive on the playground.  
  
When they reentered the room they were able to see the room for the first time with the lights on. It was decorated like most with cheesy posters on the wall. As they continued to explore the room, Lanny became fascinate with one of the posters. He signaled the others over to it. When they arrived they noticed that it was not like any of the "inspirational" posters they had seen in other classroom. It showed a quarterback wearing a crimson and cream uniform getting tackled by another football player wearing orange and white just when he was about to throw the ball, thus causing a fumble. Underneath the picture the caption read: "FAILURE-When your best just isn't good enough." This caused the three to brake out in laughter. They soon found that all the posters were just as strange, they were all hilarious, and none of them were actually useful.  
  
"Good morning people," Said a hurried voice as the new teacher entered the room.  
  
Matt looked at him for a second before asking, "Hay don't I know you?"  
  
The new teacher took a long look at Matt before he responded, "You do look quite familiar yourself. Oh well we can find out where we know each other from later, right now lets get started shall we?"  
  
The class took their seats. As usual Matt, Melina, and Lanny sat at the back of the room. They knew that they would probable be punished and moved to the front of the room, but they always started in the back.  
  
"First off I would like to tell you about myself," the teacher began. "I started acting about six years ago. While I was waiting for my big break, I started working as a substitute to pay the rent. I soon found that I loved teaching, and started working towards my education degree. I just finished my education, and so here I am."  
  
The new teacher looked around at the class. Everyone had a blank expression on their face. After a few seconds Matt decided to speak up. "Name please?"  
  
"Oh, I am sorry, got so excited I forgot the basics. My name is Mr. Dig." He answered.  
  
"That is the crazy sub my sister is always talking about." Matt whispered to Melina and Lanny. "If he is half as good as she says, this should be a great year." A smile started growing across the faces of all three.  
  
Before they new it they were returning from recess. "So when are you going to do it," Melina forcefully asked?  
  
Lanny added his feelings of frustration towards Matt with a few nods of his head.  
  
"Don't worry, I am going to do it when we get back into the room," Matt replied with a bit of concern in his voice.  
  
The three entered the room and took their seats as the bell rung. Almost immediately Mr. Dig slipped through the door and without skipping a beat started his afternoon lecture.  
  
Melina gave a Matt a look that said that she would take care of him if he did not start the gag. Matt took the hint and reached into his bag and pulled out a remote control. He pointed it to a spot on the ceiling where a small black sphere the size of a pea was hanging, and pressed the play button. He held his breath while he waited to see that his plan was working. All of a sudden the ceiling tile above Mr. Dig began to raise. "Just another second" Matt said to himself, but after a few seconds nothing had happened. He looked at Melina and then at Lanny. Lanny was waving his arms furiously and pointing towards the ceiling. Matt looked up just in time to see that the ceiling tiles above the three had also been removed, and water was falling towards each of them.  
  
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Matt yelled as the water approached his face. The water hit him directly on his face, but to his surprise it was only about half a cup worth. He suddenly stopped screaming and quickly became aware that he had just made such commotion about so little water.  
  
It did not take him long to figure out what had happened. "Adam," Matt yelled as he stood up. "I thought we had settled this last year. I am the prankster of this school, or do you need another reminder?"  
  
"Well this is a new year, and time for a new prankster," Adam replied.  
  
"Settle down people," said Mr. Dig. "I was the one who rigged your prank."  
  
"You!?" Melina, Matt, Lanny, and Adam replied together. This was the first time a teacher had been involved in a prank, other than being the person that got pranked.  
  
"Yes. Now I have already called your parents, you three need to stay after school so I can talk to you and your parents. Now if you will take your seats so we can continue."  
  
After that the three sat quietly in their seats and waited for their punishment. The looming punishment made the rest of the day creped by slowly. Finally it was 3:15 and the rest of the class left, leaving the trio and Mr. Dig alone.  
  
Jo and Sam McGuire soon arrived at the school. They quietly got out and walked into the school. Jo was the first one to speak as they headed down the hall towards Matt's room. "One, just ONCE, I wish that we could get through the first day without being called to Matt's school!"  
  
"At least he waited until after lunch this time," Sam replied trying to calm his wife down. Needles to say this was not helping.  
  
"Ah, good to see you again Mr. and Mrs. McGuire," Mr. Dig said as he stood up to great the two.  
  
Jo shook his hand and replied, "It's good to see you too. Congratulations on getting your first full time teaching job. I am sorry, however, that you will have to put up with these three all year." Jo peered over the top of her glasses at the trio giving Matt an especially evil look.  
  
Matt was sitting on the edge of his chair with his mouth wide open. He was about to make another comment, but the look told him that his mom was in a bitter mood. He paused for a second, closed his mouth and slid to the back of his chair.  
  
"Well, we certainly had fun today," Mr. Dig said with a smile.  
  
Jo's eyes returned to Mr. Dig. "Well what did they do this time?" she asked.  
  
Mr. Dig pulled out a latter, climbed to the top, and removed one of the ceiling tiles. From out of the hole he removed an old VCR. To the astonishment of the McGuire's he showed them how the three had removed the remote receiver, and bypassed the power supply with a few batteries. He continued to show them how string had been wrapped around one of the gears, so that when the play button was pressed, the string would be reeled in. Pointing to the removed ceiling tile above his desk he told how the string had been used to raise the tile and tip a bucket of water onto his head.  
  
During his speech, Sam kept giving his son a look while trying to hold back a smile. Jo kept shoving her elbow into Sam's side.  
  
Jo took one another quick look at Matt before she started to recite her usual response. "I can assure you that Matt will be punished for..."  
  
"That won't be necessary Mrs. McGuire," Mr. Dig interrupted. "I took care of it myself. I was warned about these three, and so it did not take me long to figure out their plan. I originally just cut the strings so that it did not work, but since they waited till after recess, I was able to turn the tables on them." He pointed to the three ceiling tiles that were missing above each of the student's desks.  
  
"Wait, you are saying that you used their own trick to get them wet?" Sam asked. He was having a hard time keeping himself from laughing, but he soon burst into laughter, to the glares of Matt and Jo.  
  
"Mr. Dig," Jo began in a soft voice. "Now I can't say that I an not glad that somebody has beaten these three at their own game, but I must question your judgment. Knowing my son he will think of a way to retaliate by next week."  
  
"Oh I have already got something in mind," Matt burst out before he could think about what he was saying. Jo shot another look at him from across the room, while Melina punched him on his shoulder.  
  
"Exactly," Mr. Dig said without flinching. "And I hope it is a good one to."  
  
"What!?" Everybody in the room asked in unison.  
  
"These three have shown a lot of inelegance building this contraption." Mr. Dig started.  
  
"See I told you it was ingenious," Matt quietly bragged to Melina.  
  
Mr. Dig did not hear him and continued. "The Electrical Engineering used to bypass the power supply, the Mechanical Engineering used to raise the tiles and tip the buckets. It may not be their homework, but at least they are learning."  
  
Jo quickly changed to her scolding mother voice. "Mr. Dig, I do not want my son and his friends running around this school playing pranks on the students and teachers!"  
  
"Nether do I," Mr. Dig responded. He walked back to his desk where he took three pieces of paper out of a drawer. "I have made up these contracts. Every Friday I will give each of the three their current grades. If they all have at least a B average, they may try to prank me whenever they wish during the next week. If they prank me without having a B average, or they prank anybody else in this school they will immediately be suspended for one week."  
  
"What's the fun in that?" Matt shouted.  
  
"The fun, Mr. McGuire, will be to try to get past me," Mr. Dig said with a smile on his face. "It also states in the contract that I may rig the prank like I did today."  
  
Matt smiled and put out his hands for his friends to give him five. "This will be to easy."  
  
All three of the McGuire's sinned the first contract. After exchanging pleasantries, they left the room leaving Lanny and Melina, who were waiting for their own parents to arrive.  
  
The trio wasted no time. Later that night they started planning their next prank, which would come Monday morning. 


	4. Changes

AN: READ THE NEW ENGING TO CHAPTER 2. It is very important before you read this chapter. With that said I just want to tell you that school started this week, can you believe that, so I will be updating even slower than usual. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, I do. I have really changed the characters, hence the title. For all you Kate fans, I have added a new bully set on destroying Lizzie and Miranda's freshman year. Hope you like it. BTW, I have decided to remove my little quiz at the end. Nobody was answering.  
  
Chapter 4: Changes  
  
"Remember the first test is this Friday. It will cover the home keys." Lizzie's typing teacher yelled as the student's frantically put their books into their bags and headed to their next class.  
  
Lizzie was slow to put her things away. It had been a week since Gordo had asked her out, and with each passing day the pain grew worse in her stomach. Ever since that day her stomach would tie itself in knots every time she knew she was going to see him, and continued until he was no longer in site. She knew that had not take her answer well. He had not come over to her house since that day and the trio had only been together once outside school, and then for only about a half hour. When they were together in school Gordo had become extremely quiet, despite the attempts by Lizzie and Miranda to make him talk.  
  
"Do you want to skip Geometry today?" Lizzie asked Miranda on their way to the class.  
  
Miranda's jaw dropped at the shock of what she just heard. She had tried to skip classes a couple of times in junior high, but Lizzie had talked her out of it. Knowing that Lizzie could never deal with conflict, or breaking the rules, she knew that something was going on. "You just don't want to see Gordo, do you?" She asked.  
  
Lizzie thought about lying to Miranda, but she knew that Miranda would be able to see right through it. It was times like this that Lizzie wished she was able to lye. "I just can't stand him looking so sad."  
  
"You DID reject him," Miranda added to Lizzie's displeasure  
  
"I just never thought that he would take it so badly. I mean it's Gordo we are talking about, he never lets stuff get to him." Lizzie tried to rationalize her thoughts.  
  
"Lizzie," Miranda said sounding like he mother, "you and I both know that some things get to him, and when they do it really affects him." Miranda looked at Lizzie and smiled. "Besides you love Geometry," Miranda said in a cheerful voice before bolting down the hallway.  
  
Lizzie let out a small laugh before hurrying to catch up with Miranda.  
  
It was true she had begun to enjoy her math class. It was not because the material was easy, it was because the class was so small. It turned out that Honors Geometry was only scheduled during third and sixth period. Almost everyone who was taking the class had a conflict during sixth period, thus it was only the eleven of them. Because of the smaller class, Mrs. Bell could teach faster, and pay more attention to those who were falling behind.  
  
As Lizzie tried to fill her head with all the things she liked about sixth period, a frantic voice pulled her back. "Lizzie, Miranda," the voice shouted. The two turned around to see Ethan running towards them, knocking over three juniors on his way. "Have you seen Kate?!" he was breathing heavy, and was having a hard time getting out the words.  
  
"No, not since this morning," Miranda answered.  
  
"What's wrong?" Lizzie asked.  
  
Ethan took a second to regain his breath before giving his answer. "We were just down by the gym checking the results of the cheerleader tryouts, she didn't make varsity. She just ran away, and I have been trying to find her."  
  
"She's not a cheerleader?" Lizzie asked with great joy in her voice. She was so happy that she almost broke out into a song before she realized that Kate had changed, and did not deserve such an insult, yet. Lizzie took a deep breath and calmed herself before continuing. "I thought that she had a position locked up."  
  
Ethan, in his immortal clueless ness, did not pick up on Lizzie's enjoyment of the situation and continued. "Naw, she is on the JV squad. Yeah see it turns out that Clair went to cheer camp this summer where the varsity captain was working, she was the only freshman to make varsity. I gota find Kate and cheer her up."  
  
"Good luck," Miranda said as Ethan cut between the two girls and continued his quest.  
  
Both Lizzie and Miranda giggled as they watched Ethan's head sweep back and forth frantically looking for any sign of Kate. "WOW, he is acting like he actually has a clue," Lizzie joked. She had finally got over her crush on him, and as such had become more critical of Ethan's stupidity.  
  
"Hay," Miranda shot back at Lizzie, "that's my future husband you are talking about!" Miranda stared at Lizzie for a moment before the two broke into laughter. "But it is funny how a girl can change a guy," Miranda spoke before she realized what she was saying.  
  
"Miranda!" Lizzie exclaimed.  
  
"Sorry," Miranda apologized to Lizzie. The two started walking towards their next class. "You never did tell him why you turned him down did you?"  
  
"No," Lizzie replied, "I wanted to, but I just haven't been able to talk to him since then." Lizzie's stomach was really starting to twist now. She was feeling so guilty about not telling her best friend why she said no to him. Last year she was so sad because she finally asked Ethan out and was rejected much in the same way. It wasn't until after he told her that there was no chemistry between them was she able to finally get over her feelings. She knew exactly what Gordo was going through, and she couldn't believe it was her fault.  
  
The girls walked the rest of the way to Geometry in silence. It was not until they rounded the final corner that Miranda spoke. "I've got an idea. You have tryouts for that play next week right." Lizzie nodded her head. "Ask Gordo if he will help you rehearse."  
  
"What good will that do?" Lizzie asked.  
  
Miranda took a breath before beginning her explanation. "It will show Gordo that you still want to be friends with him. Plus it will get you some scheduled time to be alone with him."  
  
"What if he says no," Lizzie nervously asked.  
  
"Lizzie, if there is one thing that Gordo would do, it would be to make you into an actress. Come on, how many times has he asked you to be in one of his movies?" Miranda's answer was not very reassuring to Lizzie, so she decided to make one more. "But if that doesn't work, you are just going to have to go out with him." With that Miranda slipped into the classroom.  
  
Lizzie groaned at the idea that she go out with Gordo. She would like to, but she had already made up her mind that she wouldn't. She brushed her hair back and walked into the room. To Lizzie's surprise Gordo was not in his usual seat, he was sitting at the front of the room next to Eric.  
  
"Hi, Lizzie," came a voice behind her.  
  
Lizzie turned to see David walking into the classroom. "Hay David, did you get the homework done today?" she asked.  
  
"Just finished it last period," David replied just before he took his seat next to his best friends Wes and Jason.  
  
Lizzie smiled as she took her seat next to Miranda. The other thing she liked about the small class was that even though the students had many different interests, everybody got along, and knew about everybody else. Lizzie knew that David always waited to do his homework till the last minute, thus he almost never finished it. He also hung around Wes and Jason, and the three were in the schools marching band the "Hillridge Regiment", which Eric was the drum major. Melissa and Lindsey were two other friends that were in the class. Both were already competing for Valedictorian even though they were only freshmen. The last person that was attending the class was Danny. He was quiet and usually kept to himself, but it was obvious that he had classes with some of the kids.  
  
Gordo got up from his seat and walked towards the back of the room. "Where were you during lunch today?" Miranda asked  
  
"I was helping Eric. I am going to be tutoring him this semester, so I will be sitting next to him during class and at lunch."  
  
"I thought you were going to be tutoring us?" Lizzie forcefully asked.  
  
"You two are doing just fine," he replied before returning to his seat.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda stared at each other with a confused look on their faces. "Talk to him," Miranda demanded.  
  
"Ok, ok, I will talk to him after class."  
  
"Hay Eric," Danny yelled from across the room, "are you going to be academically eligible in time for the State Championships? We don't want the Pride to win like last year."  
  
"Here we go again," Miranda quietly said to Lizzie while she rolled her eyes.  
  
Band was not popular at Hillridge High, but they were respected, as well they should be. They had more State Championships than anybody else in the state, and were the only ones to make it to the final round at Nationals.  
  
Unfortunately when you are the one who causes the schools rival to win, you don't go unpunished. That's what happened to Eric. He was one of the drum majors that was off to the side of the field, and during their final performance at the State Championships he somehow got off tempo, and caused the band their fifth straight title.  
  
"We don't need him," Wes said, "we've got Jason."  
  
Jason stood up and raised his arms, "One, Two, One, Two, Three, Four." He continued to waive his arms, and Lizzie was sure he was imitating a Drum Major. As he continued, he started changing the tempo, obviously imitating Eric's legendary performance.  
  
"You know," Eric said while he turned to face the three, "I can't do anything about him, but you three, you three are just freshmen. I am a four-year senior, not to mention Drum Major. If you keep it up, I think you should do, I don't know, lets say three hundred pushups EACH, during tomorrow's practice."  
  
Jason froze, his arms stuck in the air. The blood was draining from his face, and the face of his friends. Soon he resumed his seat, and just sat quietly staring into space.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda, along with the rest of the class laughed at the three. "Glad I'm not in the band," Lizzie chucked.  
  
"What's so funny?" Asked Mrs. Bell as she entered the room.  
  
"We were just discussing Eric's performance at last years State Championships," Danny's answered.  
  
"I would have expected more from you Danny," Mrs. Bell's disappointment was reinstated in her town. "I don't want to hear any more about that day ok." She sent an 'I mean it' look towards Danny, Wes, David, and Jason.  
  
Everybody in the class knew why she did not like talking about that day. Her daughter was also in the band. She had experienced her daughters' disappointment, and was determined to help the band rebuild their confidence.  
  
After making sure that the situation had been resolved, Mrs. Bell started class as usual. "Looks like we are missing only one student, as usual."  
  
"Not today."  
  
Lizzie along with the rest of the class looked at the door to see the new student. "Larry?" Lizzie exclaimed.  
  
Standing in the doorway was Larry Tudgeman, the school nerd, or a shadow of him. During the previous spring Lizzie had given him a make over so that she could sneak him into a party. It appeared that over the summer he had allowed the make over to stick. This made the third time that he had appeared, well, cool.  
  
As he entered the room, Mrs. Bell engaged the new student. "So you are the elusive Larry Tudgeman."  
  
"Yes mam I am," he replied. Out of his backpack, he pulled out several sheets of paper and handed the to Mrs. Bell. "Here are all the homework assignments I missed."  
  
Gordo let out his usual "ha, ha, ha, Tudgeman," as Larry handed in his homework.  
Mrs. Bell was surprised as well to see as student so prepared. "Well thank you Larry, now if you will take your seat we can begin."  
  
Larry walked towards the back of the room and sat down in front of Miranda.  
  
"Did the National Star Flip convention get out late?" Miranda asked as Larry sat down.  
  
"You are never going to say it correctly are you?" Larry replied.  
  
This response sparked a smile to appear on Miranda's face.  
  
Lizzie dismissed the smile to inquire about Larry's new look. "I thought you weren't going to stick to the new look I gave you!"  
  
"Well I meet somebody over the summer who really likes it when I dress this way. I think she is blind though."  
  
Larry's response caused Miranda's smile to grow even bigger. Lizzie also noticed that she was slightly blushing. "Why is Miranda acting so weird," Lizzie thought to herself. Suddenly the answer came into her head. "It couldn't be. Could it?" Lizzie lightly slapped Miranda's arm gaining her attention. "What was that?" she mouthed while pointing to Larry.  
  
Miranda threw her hands palm up and mouthed back, "What?"  
  
Mrs. Bell had started the day's lecture, and Lizzie would rather discuss the matter when Larry was not around, just in case. She turned back to the front and began copping the notes from the board.  
  
As usual the period seemed to fly buy. Before anybody noticed the final bell had rung, and everybody was hurrying to get out of the school. Lizzie and Miranda picked up their books. "Eight days down, only like a billion more to go!" Said Lizzie as she walked towards the front of the room.  
  
"I know who knows exactly how many days are left," Miranda hinted back at Lizzie.  
  
"Real subtle, Miranda!"  
  
"Hay, if I made it to subtle, it would never get past your blond hair," Miranda joked. She looked at the door over Lizzie's shoulder before continuing. "I'm outtie, I have to go get ourselves a new tutor." With a quick goodbye to Gordo, Miranda rushed out the door.  
  
Gordo closely followed Miranda out the door. "Gordo," Lizzie exclaimed as she ran out of the classroom. "Gordo, wait up."  
  
Gordo stopped in the hall and waited for Lizzie to catch up with him. "What's up?" he asked Lizzie.  
  
"My drama class is having auditions for 'Twelve Angry Citizens' in a coupe of weeks and I was wondering if you would be able to help me rehearse?" Lizzie's stomach was twisted in knots as she asked the question. She was really hoping that he would say yes and things would return to the way they use to be.  
  
A confused look came over Gordo's face. "Twelve angry CITIZENS?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah," Lizzie replied hoping that his inquiry meant that he was willing to help. "It is a re-write of 'Twelve Angry Men,' but it has women in some of the roles because we don't have 12 guys.  
  
"Sorry Lizzie I would love to help you but I am too busy," Gordo replied as the two walked down the hall.  
  
"What do you mean, you are too busy?" Lizzie was trying hard not to shout at Gordo. She knew that there was probably a reasonable explanation, but she wanted the old Gordo to return. The one that would drop everything to help Miranda or herself with anything, the Gordo she still had a crush on. "You just agreed to tutor Eric, but you can't come over and help me with a stupid audition?"  
  
Gordo noticed the small amount of anger in Lizzie's voice, which caused him to become angry as well. "I'm sorry Lizzie, I am taking six upper level classes, many of which Larry and myself are the only freshmen. I have the directors club, and now that I have agreed to tutor Eric, I have no free time left. I am sorry Lizzie, but you are just to late."  
  
Gordo started walking faster, indicating that the conversation was now over. "Wait a sec. Gordo," Lizzie yelled as she grabbed his arm and causing him to turn back towards Lizzie. "I know why you don't want to hang around me," She said in a quiet voice."  
  
"Of course you do. I just told you, I don't have time," Gordo Screamed back at her.  
  
"No the real reason," Lizzie replied. She was trying as hard a she could to keep from crying. Lizzie never liked fighting with Gordo, but this was the first time she felt that it was her fault. "I know that you don't want to be around me anymore because I said no to you." Lizzie finished as a tear began rolling down her face.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Gordo asked angrily.  
  
"I just never told you why, and I think if you understood......"  
  
"I do understand. You don't feel the same way about me that I feel about you. I GET IT." With that said, Gordo quickly walked around the corner.  
  
Lizzie had no idea what to do now. She was tired of fighting with Gordo, so she decided not to pursue him. "But I do," was the only thing she could think of saying.  
  
"Yeah right," Gordo quietly said to himself as he walked to his locker. "If you like me so much why did you say no."  
  
Gordo was still angry when he arrived at his locker. After opening it, which he had now mastered, he pulled out the note that he had kept in his wallet. Gordo opened the piece of paper and set it on top of his books. As fast as he could he turned the picture that he kept inside the note over so that he could not see the person in it. He stared at the letter, but did not read it. He had the entire note memorized. As he thought about the words in the note, he heard a familiar voice. He looked around and saw a tall black fellow walking down the hall surrounded by what Gordo suspected were senior. He quickly returned the note into his wallet, shut his locker, and walked towards the seniors.  
  
"Hay, you sold me an elevator pass last year," he said with an unusually stern voice.  
  
"Sorry man, but no refunds." The senior replied and then returned to his previous conversation.  
  
"I don't want a refund, I want two more!" Gordo demanded  
  
The senior's attention was again broken away from his friends. A confused look fell upon his face as he asked, "You want to buy more?"  
  
"When did I say I wanted to buy anything?" Gordo's brain was boiling. By this time he was no longer sure of what he was saying. All he knew was that he felt extremely confident, and knew that this senior could not stand in the way of his ultimate goal, the passes.  
  
"Ah, you think that I am going to hand over two elevator passes to a sophomore." The senior took a few steps closer towards Gordo. His hands motioned for his friends to follow him. "I don't think that you figured out how this school works last year. Why don't me and my friends from the football team give you a little review."  
  
For the first time during this conversation Gordo realized the severity of the situation. The senior he had been talking to, along with three rather large and muscular guys, and one extremely fat fellow, were walking towards him. Gordo slowly raised his foot, preparing to back away from the approaching mob. Although his leg was moving slowly, his brain was moving faster than ever trying to figure out a way out of it. By the time his foot was a few inches above the ground a plan formed in his mind. It was risky, he knew some facts, but with a bit of creative lying and some good acting he might be able to pull it off.  
  
His foot was moving backwards now, but suddenly changed directions, and Gordo took a large step towards the five seniors. This action caused the five to start laughing. Gordo stood no chance against any one of them, let alone all five. His act of bravery, just made the seniors want to hurt him more.  
  
"I will give you two options," Gordo sternly told the seniors.  
  
"Oh, and what are they?" one of them asked.  
  
"One, you can give me the passes....."  
  
"That's not going to happen," another senior replied.  
  
"Or two, I tell Miss Ungermeyer that you are the ones distributing the elevator passes." Gordo only knew that she was looking hard for the source, he was hoping that it was them. His plan was working, the head senior motioned to the others to stop. Gordo took this opportunity to continue. "I also know that you organized last years attacks on the freshmen. I bet she would love to hear about that."  
  
The head senior looked at Gordo and started laughing. "Man, you really want to die this year don't you? If you tell that to Miss Ungermeyer, you won't live to see Christmas."  
  
Gordo took another step towards the black senior. "I heard you did a really good gob. So good in fact, you made the seniors look like fools. It would be a shame if Joey Emerson found out that you did it. I walked by his house the other day, overheard him tell his girlfriend how much he would like to 'crush the person responsible for that.' And by the way, I am only a freshman." This second speech was again a combination of truth and lies.  
  
The head senior looked at the rest of the group, then back to Gordo. "You've got guts kid, talking to us like that. I respect that. What's your name?"  
  
Unsure if he had succeeded or not, Gordo simply replied, "Gordo."  
  
The group of seniors broke into laughter. "Gordo? Where your parents hippies or something?" the head senior asked.  
  
"No, my name is David Gordon, but everybody calls me Gordo."  
  
"What kind of fourth grade nickname is Gordo?" One of the seniors asked. The ironic part was that Kate had given him that name in the fourth grade.  
  
"David huh," the senior replied. "It isn't the best name in the world, but it's better than Gordo. Come on David let's talk." The group started walking down the hallway as the head senior introduced himself. "My name is Bryan, this is Greg," he pointed to a tall blond guy that looked like he could be the Quarterback. "This is Ken and Dan," David knew who they where, they were the wide receivers on the football team. "And finally this is JB," Bryan pointed to the fat guy, who was most defiantly on the offensive line.  
  
After Bryan introduced David to the rest of the group the conversation returned to the elevator passes. "We normally start tormenting the freshmen on the first day of school. But as you said Miss Ungermeyer is keeping a close eye on us, so we are waiting a while. She has really started to ease up on us so starting Monday the freshman are toast." Bryan slammed his fist into his hand. The others let out a villainous laugh. "I will give you the two passes then."  
  
David was relived to hear that he was going to receive the passes, but something that Bryan said made him nervous. "Are all the freshman toast?" He asked.  
  
Bryan laughed. "No, there is a small list of freshman that we will leave alone. I think your actions today just got you on the list. Actually it is nice to have one of the enemy on our side, so you could help us if you want."  
  
"Cool," he replied to Bryan. After engaging Bryan, David had been full of energy, something that he had never felt before in his life. He was now on the other side of the fence, and he was beginning to like it.  
  
Greg, the Quarterback, turned to David, "So David, if you are a freshman, how did Bryan sell you an elevator pass last year?"  
  
David did not want to go into the story, but knew he would have to. "The school wanted me to skip 8th grade so I came here. I did not want to end up like the guys in my classes that worked all day and never had any fun. So I decided to go back to junior high to be with my friends." Actually he was now rethinking that decision.  
  
To David's surprise nobody cared that he was smart enough to skip a grade, or that he had elected to return to junior high. They just kept walking talking about everything from football and cheerleaders, to freshmen and Miss Ungermeyer.  
  
The group left the school and David headed for his bus. As he walked Bryan asked him one final question. "So David, what is so important that you blackmail a group of seniors for a measly two elevator passes."  
  
David's blood was still hot from the argument the two had. He stared strait into Bryan's eyes and with a stern voice said, "Revenge!" 


	5. Black Monday

AN: I am such a lire. I said I would not have time to update, then I go and spend the entire weekend righting a new chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, but please don't get mad at me if you don't, and please don't stop reading because of this chapter.  
  
Chapter 5: Black Monday  
  
David's eyes shot open, as he quickly sat up in his bed. A sharp pain pierced his ears with every beep from his alarm clock. He slapped his hand down onto the clock, turning it off. Slowly he looked around at his empty room before getting out of bed. David was always slow to get up on Mondays.  
  
As David proceeded to get ready for the day, he tried hard to not look out his window. With every passing moment his desire became more and more overwhelming. Just as he was ready to head downstairs he finally looked.  
  
Just a block over, David could see the corner of Lizzie's house. It was not her room, but just the ability to see it had helped him through many long nights. It would have only taken him three and a half minutes to reach her house. Just a quick walk through some back yards, through a gate, and across two roads was all it took for him to reach her. With the events of the past week her house now seemed to be a million miles away. A point that he could never reach no matter how long he walked.  
  
The two had not spoken to each other in four days. David was now tired of making excuses, and just started to ignore her. He sat with the seniors at lunch and with Eric during math. Every time she called he would just hang up. He had blocked her on his IM list, and deleted all her emails immediately. Slowly the calls and emails slowed, and he had not heard anything from her since Saturday night.  
  
Since he befriended the seniors last Wednesday, David had been spending most of his time with them. Bryan was fun, he reminded David of an older Matt, but the two never hung out together. Instead David usually spent his free time with JB and Greg.  
  
David just stared out the window at her house thinking about the turn his life had taken. "Snap out of it Gordo," he said to himself. The moment he said the word Gordo, his eyes filled once more with rage. "It's DAVID now you idiot," he yelled as he grabbed the elevator passes off the desk and ran downstairs.  
  
_________________________  
  
In the next block over from David's house Lizzie McGuire was also getting ready for school. She had just put on the outfit that she and Miranda had picked out over the phone, and was now brushing her hair. "Lizzie, you are going to be late," her mother yelled from downstairs. Lizzie quickly finished her hair and ran downstairs.  
  
Lizzie walked into the kitchen to see her breakfast was already prepared. As she approached a dark thought crossed her mind. "Wait, who made this?" she asked.  
  
"Matt did honey," her mom replied from the kitchen sink.  
  
Lizzie's eyes shot towards her little brother who was enjoying his meal. "Ok monster dork," Lizzie had changed her pet name for Matt after hearing that Mrs. Bell calls her son monster child, "what did you do to my food?"  
  
"Nothing," Matt replied acting as though he was shocked at the accusation that he would do anything bad.  
  
Lizzie knew something was going on. Matt was always playing pranks on her. Now that he had a contract saying it was ok for Matt to prank Mr. Dig, she had become a good practice target. "Listen worm if you don't undo whatever you did to my food, I will crush you. GOT IT!"  
  
"Matt," Lizzie's mom shouted, "you are allowed to prank Mr. Dig ONLY. Look at what you have already done to your dad."  
  
A grown came from the family room. Lizzie turned to see her father lying on the couch with a steak over his eye.  
  
"Alright," Matt reluctantly said as he got down from his stool. He headed over to Lizzie's place at the counter and started untying hidden wires. Lizzie watched closely as Matt striped the stool of the apparatus that was supposed to.... Lizzie wasn't sure what the thing was supposed to do.  
  
With the threat from Matt resolved Lizzie ate her breakfast and finished preparing for the day. As she was about to leave her mom cornered her for another advise session.  
  
"If those seniors give you any more problems, go directly to Miss Ungermeyer, ok." Her mom said.  
  
"Ok mom," Lizzie replied as she looked for a way out of the situation. She liked her mom giving her advice, but when she repeated the same advice every morning, it just became overkill.  
  
Lizzie escaped her moms' lecture and headed for the bus stop. As she walked she felt so bad about what she was doing. She was lying to her mom. The seniors were not harassing her, in fact they seamed kind of nice. It was the only thing she could thing of after returning from the first day of school in tears. She was never able to talk to her mom about boys the way she talked to her about other things so she lied. "I wonder if she knows?" Lizzie asked out loud.  
  
"Know what?"  
  
Lizzie looked up and realized she was already at the bus stop. "I wonder if my mom knows about Gordo," she told Miranda.  
  
"Probably," Miranda shrugged as if it were now big deal. "I mean if I could figure it out, heck even Kate figured it out, I am sure you mom has."  
  
Lizzie smiled at the thought of her mom knowing. Even though she could not tell her mom, the thought of her mom knowing was comforting.  
  
The two soon arrived at school and proceeded to their lockers. Lizzie opened her locker and watched a folded up piece of yellow paper fall to the floor. As she bend down to picked it up she noticed that Miranda was holding one two. "What's this?" Miranda asked.  
  
Lizzie opened hers up and began reading.  
  
Dear Lizzie  
We hope you enjoyed your first week and a half at Hillridge High School.  
Last year we told you that this school has rules, and what they are.  
Starting at 8:15 these rules will take effect. Enjoy the last few  
minutes before your life at Hillridge High becomes your worst  
nightmare.  
THE SENIORS  
  
Lizzie was shocked at the contents of the letter. Other than when she was talking to her mom, the thought of being hazed by the senior did not enter her mind. She looked at Miranda, who was still reading her letter. Lizzie took a closer look and noticed that the seniors had been nice enough to include a copy of the rules since she had never seen them before.  
  
Miranda looked up with terror in her eyes. "Are they really going to enforce this?"  
  
Lizzie was a little shocked to see Miranda scared. She was really counting on Miranda to help her get past the bullies like she did in junior high. Lizzie looked at the clock. "I don't know, but in one minute we will find out."  
  
"Lizzie, Miranda" said David. The two girls had been fixated on the letters and did not notice him walk up.  
  
"Look who has decided to talk to us." Miranda said harshly.  
  
"Listen," David started, "I am sorry for not talking to you. I just needed some time to think. Here I got these for you." David held out his hand with two pieces of paper in it.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda each took a piece of paper and examined it. "Elevator passes?" Lizzie questioned his gift. "Gordo, we used the elevator all last week without passes."  
  
"That was last week. Starting today you have to buy passes to use the elevators. Luckily for you, I was able to get some cheep from some football players." Gordo knew the girls all to well and was ready for anything they might say or do.  
  
Miranda was also weary about accepting the gift. "What do football players and elevator passes have to do with each other?" she asked.  
  
Again David was prepared. "Everybody on the football team gets a free elevator pass. Most of the guys prefer to use the stairs to help stay in shape, thus they sell their passes at half price."  
  
This second explanation won the girls' confidence. "Thanks Gordo," said Lizzie.  
  
"That's another thing," David said. "I have decided to use my real name. Gordo was kinda childish."  
  
"You want us to call you David?" Miranda seemed sad to have to stop using the name Gordo.  
  
David avoided Miranda's question. "I have to get to class. See you in Geometry." David turned and walked down the hall leaving a confused Lizzie and Miranda standing by their lockers.  
  
The two girls also hurried off to their first class. Afterwards they decided to take the elevator on their way to history. They waited for what seemed to be a hour until the elevator doors finally opened. They waited for everybody to leave the elevator before the two, along with about ten others, squeezed inside the tinny box. As the elevator doors closed a hand was suddenly shoved into the doors causing them to reopen.  
  
"Not so fast," Miss Ungermeyer said as she got onto the elevator.  
  
Lizzie and Miranda looked around for somebody to give their elevator pass to. Seeing nobody, Lizzie turned to Miss Ungermeyer. "Miss Ungermeyer, who do we give our elevator passes to?"  
  
As soon as she said this, everybody in the elevator began laughing, even Miss Ungermeyer was trying to hold back her chuckles. "Ah Miss McGuire, it seems your ability to be fooled has not diminished since this summer. I hate to inform you that you do not need a pass to ride the elevator."  
  
"But when Gordo, I mean David gave these to us he said...." Lizzie started, but was interrupted my Miss Ungermeyer.  
  
"Mr. Gordon gave these to you?" she asked as she took the passes from the two girls.  
  
The elevator doors opened to the third floor. Miss Ungermeyer, Lizzie, and Miranda exited the elevator. The conversation continued as they walked the halls.  
  
"Mr. Gordon?" Miranda asked.  
  
"Yes David Gordon, short boy with dark curly hair. Hangs out with Miss Diva." Miss Ungermeyer pointed to Lizzie.  
  
"I know who he is," Miranda abruptly stated.  
  
"Oh you do, do you. Now the question is, who are you." Miss Ungermeyer was not happy at Miranda's outburst.  
  
Lizzie sensed that things were going to get heated very fast if she did not intervene. "This is my best friend Miranda. She and I are best friends with David." Lizzie tried to make her voice as happy as possible to help Miss Ungermeyer and Miranda to calm down.  
  
Miss Ungermeyer backed off. She turned to Lizzie to say her farewell. "Well, when you see Mr. Gordon, please find out who sold this to him and let me know, ok." She left the girls outside of their history class.  
  
Through history and science Lizzie wondered if Gordo had known the elevator passes were fake. He had mentioned them to her after his day in high school, but only said he could get them cheap. "Had he ever used one?" she kept asking herself. She had no proof of her suspicions, so she never told Miranda about them.  
  
It was finally lunchtime. The two girls made their way through the lunch line and looked for a seat. It did not take long for the two to realize that the cafeteria was a lot emptier that usual. "Rule number one, freshmen must eat in the hallway." Lizzie reminded Miranda.  
  
"Looks like the rules don't apply to everyone." Miranda pointed to a table full of seniors. Sitting with his back turned was David. "Lets get this pass thing straitened out."  
  
Lizzie and Miranda made their way to David's table. "Gordo," Miranda yelled as they got closer, but there was no response.  
"Ah, GORDO," Lizzie tried. But there still was no response.  
  
Bryan looked up from the table. "Anybody know a Gordo?"  
  
"Hay David," Lizzie said in anguish.  
  
"Yes," David replied as he turned around on the bench. "Greg here told me you had quite a fun time using your elevator pass today." David along with the rest of the senior broke into laughter.  
  
"Wait these are the people you gave those passes to? Alright David." Brian stuck out a closed fist and David did the same. The two thrust their fist towards each other until they collided.  
  
"You knew about this?" Miranda asked angrily.  
  
Lizzie felt betrayed, even though she had a hunch he knew. "Why would you do such a thing David?"  
  
"Sounded like a good idea to me." David had a devilish smile on his face as he spoke.  
  
Brian stood up to address the girls. "Now ladies, as much fun as it has been talking to you, I must remind you of the rules. In the rules it states that a freshman may not talk to a senior unless spoken to first."  
  
"We were not speaking to a senior, we were speaking to a freshman," Miranda argued.  
  
Brian took a quick look at Miranda before turning to his attention to the table. "Ladies and gentlemen of the senior table. Do we allow anyone who is not a senior to sit at our table?" Everyone at the table replied with varying word and gestures, all meaning no. "And is David allowed to sit at this table?" The table responded with a yes. Bryan again turned his attention to Lizzie and Miranda. "Well if we only allow seniors to sit at this table, and David is sitting at this table, then that would make him a" Bryan waited for one of the girls to reply.  
  
"A senior?" Lizzie questioned.  
  
"Correct," Bryan shouted, "Ken, Dan please tell our lovely contestants what they have won."  
  
"Well Bryan," Ken said as he and Dan stood up, "along with spending the rest of lunch out in the hall with the rest of the freshmen, these two lovely ladies have the privilege of donating their lunch to the senior table." The boys yanked the trays out of Lizzie and Miranda's hands.  
  
"David," Lizzie pleaded for an ounce of mercy from her friend.  
  
"Sorry Lizzie, now if you don't mind leaving so we can get back to our meal." David replied in a smug voice.  
  
The girls walked out of the cafeteria with their arms around each other and both very confused at the day's events. "What just happened?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"I don't know Lizzie," Miranda softly replied.  
  
The rest of Lizzie's day was blur. She could only focus on how her best friend had betrayed Miranda and herself. The two did not say anything to David during math, but waited until afterwards.  
  
"David WAIT!" Miranda demanded as she blocked the doorway.  
  
David had no feelings for Miranda or Lizzie left. "If they want to talk to me, lets talk," he thought. "Need another elevator pass?" he joked.  
  
Lizzie just stood a few feet away while she let Miranda confront David. "Gordo, or David, or whatever, what has gotten in to you?"  
  
"Nothing," David replied.  
  
"Nothing! David, why did you give us those passes when you knew they were fake." Miranda was shouting so loud that everyone in the hall was staring into the classroom.  
  
"David," Lizzie paused as she realized she had just joined the argument, "friends don't do that to each other."  
  
David smiled as his head turned to Lizzie. "You haven't figured it out yet have you?" David was chuckling as he asked the question, but his voice went cold as he continued. "We're not friends."  
  
Miranda and Lizzie froze. Lizzie felt like every part of her body weighed a ton, how she was still standing she did not know. The three had their share of arguments, but this was the first time anyone said that they were no longer friends. The look on Miranda's face told Lizzie that she felt the same way. The two did not move again until David had left the room. "Are you alright Lizzie," Miranda asked.  
  
Lizzie's thoughts were swimming through her head so fast that she did not hear her only best friend speak. She collapsed into the nearest desk and began to cry. Miranda pulled up a desk next to her and sat down.  
  
The two sat together for fifteen minutes before Miranda noticed the time. Lizzie had already missed her buss, and she was late for Glee Club. "Lizzie," Miranda said gently, "you've missed the buss, do you want me to call your mom?" Miranda was just able to make out a yes through Lizzie's sobs. "Should I tell her what happened, or do you want to?"  
  
Again Lizzie struggled to get the words out, but finally said, "no, I'll tell her." Lizzie placed her arm on the desk and rested her cheek upon it.  
  
Miranda walked to the back of the room and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed Lizzie's number. "Hello, Mrs. McGuire, it's Miranda.......I know, she is still here at school with me.......No, she's fine, just upset. I think you should come pick her up.......No, she would rather tell you herself.......Ok, we will meet you out front." Miranda put her phone back into her purse.  
  
Miranda returned to Lizzie's side and knelt down. "Lizzie, your mom is going to meet us out front, ok."  
  
Lizzie nodded her head up and down, and slowly stood up. Miranda helped Lizzie collect her belongings, and the two headed towards the front of the building. Although they had slowed, tears were still falling down Lizzie's face. Miranda had to help her walk down the hall. About half way through their trip, Lizzie and Miranda passed the elevator. As soon as Lizzie saw the doors, she collapsed and her tears began to flow vigorously again.  
  
Miranda, who had fallen with Lizzie, let a few tears fall as she moved Lizzie to the side of the hall. Miranda leaned against some lockers and placed Lizzie's head on her shoulder. There she waited for Lizzie to regain enough strength to finish the journey. A few students, who were still in the school, stared at the two girls as they passed. Moments latter, Ronny walked down the hall and saw the crying duo.  
  
Ronny rushed over to the two girls to find out what was going on. "Lizzie, are you two ok?"  
  
"I'm ok," Miranda said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "but it's Lizzie I am worried about. We need to get her to the front doors where her mom is waiting for her."  
  
"Here let me help." Ronny and Miranda picked up Lizzie and placed one of her arms over each of their shoulders. They then placed their own arms around her waist to support her weight.  
  
Although Miranda and Ronny were supporting her, Lizzie still needed to move her feet in order to continue. She did this extremely slowly, and her mom was already at the school by the time the trio had arrived at the doors.  
  
Mrs. McGuire helped Ronny and Miranda place Lizzie in the front seat of her father's minivan. "Are you alright, do you need a ride too?" Jo asked Miranda.  
  
"No, I'm fine," Miranda replied, "I'm late for Glee Club, and my mom is picking me up after that."  
  
Jo gave Miranda a hug before leaving the school. The ride home was quit. Lizzie no longer had the strength to cry, or to do anything at all. She sat in the front seat as if she was a statue, not even her eyes were moving. What energy she had left was focused on keeping her thoughts from overwhelming her. The strange thing was that David had left the classroom, she had not once thought about him leaving her. Instead she thought about the large part of her life, of herself, had left her when he did.  
  
Lizzie remained in a trance until her mom and dad had placed her in her bed. Her father soon retreated back to the family room, but her mom staid to try and help her daughter. She kept asking questions, but Lizzie still refused to talk. She decided to go downstairs and make her daughter some soup when Lizzie finally said something. "I lied to you mom." Tears returned to Lizzie's puffy eyes.  
  
Jo, who was half way out of the room, returned to Lizzie's bed and sat down. "What about honey?"  
  
Lizzie's voice was extremely high pitched, as it usually was when she was crying. "The seniors were never harassing me, well not until today, it was David."  
  
"David?" her mother was not used to hearing her call her best friend by his real name, so it confused her when she did.  
  
Lizzie began crying even more, "Gordo mom."  
  
Whenever Lizzie was crying it did not take long before her mom was crying too. Tears began building up in Jo's eyes, "Well why don't you tell me the whole story."  
  
Lizzie wiped a few tears away from her face before starting her usual ramble. "Last spring I discovered that David and I like each other, then in Rome we kissed. I didn't see him again, and he never mentioned anything about it in his letters, until the last one when he wrote some stupid line about us going out. He asked me out during the first day of school, but I didn't want to loose him as a best friend so I said no. He started acting weird, but when I tried to tell him why he got mad at me and didn't speak to me since. Then today he pretended to apologize, and gave me and Miranda some fake elevator passes. Everybody laughed at us when we tried to give them to Miss Ungermeyer. We tried to talk to him at lunch, but the seniors he was sitting with took our food. We did talk to him after math and he said we were no longer friends."  
  
Lizzie was talking extremely fast, and with her crying Jo had a hard time understanding her daughter. She staid with her and was able to get Lizzie explain the situation in more detail. Mrs. McGuire was just as shocked when she found out that Gordo had broken their friendship. The two talked for hours, breaking just long enough for Jo to make them that soup she had promised.  
  
Lizzie's mom was having a hard time helping her daughter. For the first time she had not had an experience of this magnitude. Over the years she had lost touch with her friends, but never in such a dramatic manner. The only experiences she had was breaking up with her old boyfriends, but still it was different. This was Gordo and Lizzie, not Jo and some boy she knew for the past six months. Finally she decided to offer what little advice she could, which when put together sounded something like 'people change, you just have to deal with it, everything will be alright,' but she mostly let her daughter talk herself through this crisis. 


	6. LIfe as David

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I don't own Lizzie. I don't own 12 Angry Men. I don't even own a script for 12 angry men, so I had to make up the lines from what I remember from five years ago.  
  
AN: Sorry for the delay, I am really busy with my design team. It would have probably been longer, except I have to commit to a design this week, and it is stressing me out, so I decided to set it aside, and do a little righting. Well you are not here to read about my problems, but that of Lizzie, so here it is.  
  
Chapter 6: Life as David  
  
Juror #4: Someone with experience with a knife would never stab a person in such a manner. Let me demonstrate.  
  
Lizzie, along with some of the other actors, stood up and proceeded downstage to watch the demonstration.  
  
Juror #4: You see, to stab a person with a downward motion....  
  
"Wow, AH, AAAAAAHHHHH" Lizzie's scream brought everyone's attention to her just in time to see her fall flat on her face. She looked behind her, and saw her foot still wrapped around the leg of the chair she tripped over. "Oh great," she thought to herself, "the return of Lizzie The Klutz."  
  
"CUT," A voice boomed from the audience. It was Mr. O'Hara, the drama teacher. "Miss McGuire, are you ok."  
  
"I'm fine," she yelled back. The pitch of her voice had risen quite high after she realized that the eleven other actors, and about a doze tech's were staring at her. "Sorry," she squeaked. "Why couldn't it have been 3 angry citizens," she thought.  
  
"Well it's just after seven, so lets break for dinner. Everybody meet back here at 7:45 ok."  
  
David had been given the job of filming the play, and was in taking notes over the play when Lizzie took her dive. A slight chuckle cam out of his mouth as he watched her golden hair fly towards the stage.  
  
It had been over five weeks since he had broken their friendship, and the two had never spoken since. He avoided being in the same place as her, and would ignore her whenever their paths crossed. Her continuous bad mood kept David happy, and he felt that no other actions were necessary.  
  
Instead of working on Lizzie, David focused on other targets. His favorite was the band. He had inside knowledge since he was tutoring the drum major, and had classes with other members. Thank to he new friends he was able to pull of the pranks without anybody suspecting him.  
  
Realizing that he now had a 40-minute break, David packed up his supplies and headed to the exit. He used the main exit rather than the stage exit to avoid Lizzie. As he walked down the hall, he realized that he had left his eraser in the auditorium. David knew that Lizzie would have left the stage by now, so he opened a door that lead to the side of the stage.  
  
Immediately after he opened the door, he saw Lizzie standing center stage, talking to somebody. David hid behind a wall as he listened to the conversation.  
  
"You are in the band AND you run the sound system?" Lizzie yelled into the audience. Her voice had lost some of the anger it had been carrying for the last couple of weeks  
  
"Yep," a familiar voice replied.  
  
David wanted to stick his head out to see who she was talking to, but realized that he would give himself away. He sat down on the cold cement and leaned out just enough so that he could see. David watched as a tall slender boy casually walked up the isle, and with seemingly no effort jumped up three feet and onto the stage.  
  
THUD. David tried not to laugh and give away his position at the sight of the boy falling flat on his face. It was just then that David realized that the front section of the stage was being lowered to create an orchestra pit. David could not help but laugh as he thought of the look on the boys face as he cleared the facade of the stage, and realized that the actual floor of the stage was another two feet below him. It was only when he saw the replay in his mind that he realized the boy was David from Geometry.  
  
"Are you ok?" Lizzie asked as she jumped down and helped him up.  
  
"Yea I'm fine, just a little embarrassed," he replied as he took Lizzie's hand and pulled himself up.  
  
Lizzie held his hand and led him over to the ledge that was now forming where the movable portion of the stage and the permanent stage met. It was not until they were seated on the ledge that she let go. "I don't know if I should hang out with you," Lizzie said in a very happy and bubbly voice, "one of us might get injured." As she concluded her sentence a smile appeared on her face, and the two laughed.  
  
David Gordon felt like his heart was going to melt. It had been so long since he had seen Lizzie smile; he had forgotten how beautiful and powerful it was. Just as fast as his heart started to melt, it turned ice cold as he realized what he was seeing.  
  
"So how about that dinner?" David asked Lizzie.  
  
Lizzie swung her feet freely in the newly created opening in front of her as she pretended to contemplate the question. She laughed as she responded, "It's a date."  
  
David Gordon had enough of Lizzie's happiness, and decided to continue his work. He stood up and walked onto the stage. "I wouldn't if I were you. She has led other guy's on just to break their hearts. She's not worth it."  
  
Lizzie's jaw dropped at the words her former best friend had just said to her.  
  
David Gordon walked down the steps and into the audience satisfied with his work. "Can I call you Dave? All of a sudden I don't like the name David," was the last thing David heard Lizzie say before she and Dave left the stage.  
  
David picked up his missing eraser, and headed towards the exit. He soon made his way out of the school and headed towards the McDonalds on the corner.  
  
As David made his way across the dark empty parking lot, he noticed a car parked next to the stadium. As he got closer he noticed that it was Greg's car. "What are they doing here?" David asked himself. As he approached he saw the shadows of three guys sitting under the bleachers. Becoming even more curious David decided to see what they were up to.  
  
"Hey David" Greg yelled as David walked through the gates.  
  
"Hey," David replied. "What are you still doing here?"  
  
Ken removed the bottle from his lips so that he could answer. "Watching tape of Spring High's football team." He reached into a cooler and pulled out a brown bottle. "Want something to drink?"  
  
David looked at the bottle Ken was holding in his had. He had never been offered a beer before, and did not know how to respond. If he did not take the offering, he knew he might loose his new popularity.  
  
Before David could do much more thinking Dan broke in. "It's only root beer," Dan spoke without looking at David. With that being said, Dan's returned the bottle to his mouth.  
  
David suddenly felt embarrassed, but as usual had a plan to regain his dignity. "Oh no, it's just that I have only a few minutes to get some food before I need to be back inside."  
  
"We've got a few pieces of pizza left, if you want it." Ken opened up a pizza box, revealing three slices.  
  
David took the bottle from Ken, took a sip before sitting down. Ken slid the pizza box over to him, David removed a slice and began eating.  
  
"Good job on those band nerds last week David," Greg commented. "I would have thought of something better that a stink bomb in the base drum, but still pretty good."  
  
"Shut up Greg," Dan exclaimed. The three immediately turned their attention to Dan. This was the first time David had heard Dan use any emotion in his words. Most of the time he spoke in quick sentences, just long enough to get his point across. "You have the biggest freaking ego in the world. David did a great job, why can't you just say that, why do you have to always compare our work to yours." Dan slowly got up and walked back to the locker room.  
  
Greg grabbed an empty bottle and softly threw it at Dan. The bottle missed, and made clinking noises as it tumbled across the ground.  
  
"Don't worry about him," Ken spoke. "He always gets testy before a big game."  
  
David decided to not think about the situation and returned his attention to his pizza.  
  
Ken and Greg started talking about all the things that they had done to this year's freshman class, as well as a few things they had done the previous year. David soon joined the conversation, listing his achievements, and his plans.  
  
David quickly lost track of time as he and his new friends enjoyed the cool fall evening. Had it not been for a familiar sound, David would have surly forgotten about the play all together. David looked across the empty lot and could make out the outlines of two people. It was not their shape that he was interested in, but that familiar giggle, the giggle that warmed his heart, and made his blood ice cold.  
  
"David, you ok?" Ken asked breaking David out of his spell.  
  
It was only then that David realized that he had watched Lizzie walk across the entire parking lot. He also realized that he had been so concentrated on her that he had not noticed that he had dropped his piece of pizza. "Ah, yea, I'm fine," He replied.  
  
"Isn't that the girl you keep talking about?" Ken asked.  
  
"Man, if she wasn't a freshman," Dan said with a mischievous smile on his face.  
  
"Yeah it is," David replied to Kan before turning to Dan, "and she is all yours."  
  
"I wasn't asking, freshman," Dan said angrily.  
  
"So what's up with her?" Ken asked, ignoring Dan's comment.  
  
David leaned back against one of the steel columns. "We used to be best friends," he quietly admitted. This was the first time that he had talked about Lizzie with his new friends, other that to tell them what he planed to do to her.  
  
Root beer spit out of Dan's mouth when he heard David.  
  
"Yea right," Ken said between laughs. "A girl that fine, and you? I doubt that.  
  
"We were," David barked back. "Lizzie, Miranda, and me, the Three Amigos. And why is that so impossible, I am not that big of a nerd. Heck, she went out with Tudgeman for crying out loud!""  
  
"Ok David, lets say you two were that close," Dan said. "Why are you always talking about making her life miserable?"  
  
"Because she led me on," David yelled. Everyone, including David was surprised at his outburst. David took a breath before continuing. "She led me on, and then said no to me when I asked her out."  
  
Dan and Ken were amazed as David told the story. He told them how he first realized he liked her when she was dating Ronnie. The letter to her advice column, and the mystery party. When he reached the end of the previous year, the story about Lizzie kissing him on the cheek, Dan and Ken could not take anymore. "Ok, you are the biggest liar I have ever met," Dan said interrupting David's story.  
  
"I hate to admit it, but Dan's right David," Ken added.  
  
"It's true," David argued, "here I'll show you." David pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He opened it, and pulled out a piece of paper. He unfolded the paper and passed its contents to Ken.  
  
"So she did kiss you," Ken said as he looked at the rectangle that had been cut from David's class picture that only showed the two of them. Dan snatched the picture from Ken to analyze it himself.  
  
"It's no big deal," Dan responded to the picture. "I get kissed by girl all the time, it doesn't mean they like me."  
  
"Yea David," Ken continued Dan's statement, "it doesn't prove that she likes you, just that she has a bad sense of timing."  
  
David rebutted by continuing his story. He told the events of Rome, and how they kissed just before her parents whisked her away to their hotel. How he never saw her, or talk to her directly until he returned from his summer trip. He finished his story by telling how he asked Lizzie out and she said no.  
  
"Ok David, I believe you." Ken said.  
  
"You do?" Gordo asked, astonished how easy it was to change Ken's mind.  
  
"Yea," Ken replied. "Only a guy that has only hung out with girls his entire life would spill his guts like that."  
  
Ken's comment caught Dan off-guard, and almost chocked on his drink as he began laughing hysterically.  
  
David started banging his head against the column, realizing that he had just made himself look like such a fool in front of his new friends.  
  
"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody" Ken said while starting at Dan.  
  
"We won't," Dan asked with a puzzled look on his face.  
  
This also caught David's attention, who stopped beating his head against the column.  
  
"No we WON"T." Ken said again to Dan before turning to face David. "Just do yourself and us a favor."  
  
"What?" Gordo asked  
  
"Forget about this girl. It doesn't do good to focus on the past, ok." Ken replied.  
  
"There is a party in a couple of week, we should get you a date," Dan added.  
  
"Uh sure, thanks," David replied, stunned at Dan's strange act of kindness.  
  
"Don't mention it," Dan replied, "to ANYONE. Now we need to get back to our film, and don't you have to be in rehearsals or something."  
  
David quickly looked at his watch. "7:55! I was supposed to be inside ten minutes ago." He quickly got up, grabbed his bag and began running towards the school. "Thanks for the pizza," he yelled as he ran through the stadiums gate.  
  
"We have a lot of work to do on that one," Ken said quietly to Dan.  
  
"Don't worry, a couple of beers at the party and he will be ok," Dan replied. Both he and Ken laughed before heading back to the locker room.  
  
AN: Well what do you think. Like I said, I am completely stressed out, so I hope it wasn't that bad. Anyways, now that it is done, I guess I will return to my hole in the computer lab, so that I can lead the team to a national championship. I kinda know where I want to take this story, but am having difficulties thinking of what should happen next, if you have a suggestion, please let me know. I will give credit to any suggestions I use. I will try to update again soon. (Happy B-Day Hil, just don't try to kill yourself in your new car like my friends and I did on many occasions.) 


	7. Rearranged

AN: Sorry it took over a month to get this chapter out. I have been so busy, but since my only class yesterday got out at 9:20am, and I did not have another class until 12:30 pm today, I decided to work on this. Thank you for all your reviews, it seems like everyone wants Lizzie and Gordo (or David as I call him) to get together, so I might do that (I have a tendency to be evil, I will just make you wait and see if I will be evil and not get the two together LOL) Also I am really sorry for my bad choice of names, I did not realize that I was going to have two David's as main characters, the one I had Lizzie start calling Dave was only suppose to be a nobody.  
  
Chapter 7: Rearranged  
  
"YOU WENT OUT WITH DAVID?" Miranda exclaimed in disbelief.  
  
Lizzie had returned home from rehearsal to late to call Miranda and tell her the events of the previous night. The two had spent the morning telling each other the events of their night. For most of the bus ride Lizzie sat through Miranda's rambling about her study session with Larry. It was not until they reached the school, that Lizzie was able to tell her story.  
  
Lizzie threw her books into her now messy locker. "I didn't go out with him," she replied angrily. "Besides, he has a girlfriend." Her voice lowered when she said this. "She and Wes met us at McDonalds."  
  
"Lizzie, you can't go out with him!" Miranda started lecturing Lizzie despite Lizzie's previous remark.  
  
Lizzie pulled her English book out of her locker before slamming it shut. "Miranda, I told you, I am not going out with Dave." Lizzie was becoming very annoyed with Miranda, which had become a usual occurrence, but calmed down as she continued. "And why would that be such a bad thing?" she asked leaning her back up against her locker.  
  
"Dave?" Miranda questioned Lizzie.  
  
"Yes Dave, I don't like the name David," Lizzie replied. "Now back to my question. Why would me dating Dave be such a bad thing?"  
  
"Ok, Gordo is now David, and David is now Dave. It's like a bad story or something." Miranda was completely ignoring Lizzie.  
  
Lizzie rolled her eyes, before turning her head and staring at Miranda.  
  
Miranda was about to confess, but was interrupted by a familiar sound. She was happy to hear it, not because it had just bought her a few seconds before she would be again forced to answer Lizzie's question, but because it was natural for her to like hearing his voice, but that quickly changed.  
  
"I just wish that they still killed people who gave bad performances in the Coliseum. If they did, there would be one less dumb blond around."  
  
Miranda and Lizzie watched David and his new senior friends walk by. Once they left Miranda wondered if Lizzie ever got excited about hearing David's voice like she just did. "Ok this has gone far enough," Miranda said as she turned to Lizzie. Although David's comment was not directed at her, it was clear by her tone that she was annoyed. "We have to do something, an intervention."  
  
Lizzie turned her head away from the passing crowd to answer Miranda. "No Miranda," she practically shouted before calming her self down, "he is purposely trying to annoy us like Kate used to do. Confronting him is exactly what he wants us to do."  
  
"I was never that bad, was I?" Kate had slipped beside the girls unnoticed.  
  
"Loser, loser, Lizzie, loser." Lizzie faked a smile as she imitated Kate's cheer.  
  
Kate's head lowered slightly in shame. "Sorry," she said softly.  
  
"Whatever," Lizzie muttered.  
  
"Lizzie, looking especially richous today."  
  
Lizzie, Miranda, and Kate turned towards Ethan, who moved his head up and down as he checked out every part of Lizzie's body.  
  
Kate slapped Ethan's stomach with the pack of her hand. "Ah hello, girlfriend!" She finished the comment by pointing her finger at her face.  
  
A confused look befell Ethan's face. "But babe, I thought we were supposed to say nice things to Lizzie. You know, to get her out of that bad mood and stuff."  
  
"Come on, we're leaving," Kate demanded. She grabbed Ethan's arm and started walking down the hall, pulling Ethan behind her.  
  
"That settles it, my life is over," Lizzie stated as she crossed her arms.  
  
Miranda took this as her cue, and gave Lizzie a hug. Lizzie, however, did not return the hug, but just stood there with her arms crossed. "It's ok," Miranda whispered into Lizzie ear. Slowly letting go she continued, "Your performance rocked." A smile grew on Miranda's face, which caused a similar one to appear on Lizzie's.  
  
Sensing that Lizzie would be ok for a few minutes, Miranda announced her departure. "I'm outtie. I've got to drop off my violin before English. See you there."  
  
"Bye," Lizzie replied as Miranda turned and walked away.  
  
Lizzie started walking thought the halls of Hillridge High School. Since the beginning of school she had been able to adapt to the crowded environment of the halls. Weaving through small spaces between the huddled masses, her trip was interrupted by a virtual brick wall.  
  
Miss Ungermeyer stepped into Lizzie's path. "Miss McGuire, I have been wanting to talk to you."  
  
Lizzie took a step back increasing the short distance that remained between the two. Her new bad mood was quickly repressed, as she knew that being rude to a principal would be suicide, especially this principal.  
  
"Yes Miss Ungermeyer," she shyly replied.  
  
"I was wondering if you had talked to Mr. Gordon about those elevator passes?" Miss Ungermeyer placed her hands on her hips as she asked the question, giving Lizzie the feeling she was about to be interrogated.  
  
Lizzie did know enough to put a stop to the seniors, but she was not about to tell Miss Ungermeyer. She knew that the seniors retaliation would be more severe than anything Kate would have done if she had ratted her out for breaking the schools statue. "Sorry, I...I ah..." Lizzie was having trouble lying, but forced a smile and spit out the rest of her sentence. "I haven't asked him about that," she lied.  
  
"Great," Lizzie thought to herself, "I finally am starting to act like my normal self, and it is the part of my normal self that can't stand conflict."  
  
"Ah, I see," Miss Ungermeyer said as she started to walk in a large circle around Lizzie. Lizzie just stood where she was as Miss Ungermeyer continued. "I have noticed that he has been spending a large amount of time with a group of seniors. The same seniors that I suspect are behind the attacks on the freshmen class. You would not be lying to me, just to protect your friend, now would you Miss McGuire?" Miss Ungermeyer was has competed her circle, and was now directly in Lizzie's face awaiting her answer.  
  
Lizzie noticed an opening in Miss Ungermeyer's speech and was able to clearly respond without lying. "Gordo and I are not friends anymore. I have not spoken to that jerk in over a month." Lizzie's stomach dropped when she realized that she had just called her former best friend a jerk, although she felt he deserved it.  
  
"Really?" Miss Ungermeyer stepped back and had an expression on her face that told Lizzie that she was surprised to hear the news. "And after all that you two went through in Rome. Well, that's life huh?" Miss Ungermeyer chuckled.  
  
Lizzie felt as if she had just been hit in the stomach by a wrecking ball. "Yea, I guess," she softly replied.  
  
"Well if you hear anything let me know." Miss Ungermeyer started to walk away. "Don't worry I will find out who is behind this. There is nothing that goes on in this school that the Ungermeyer does not know about."  
  
"Yeah, if you knew everything that goes on in this school you would not need to be asking me for information."  
  
"What was that Miss McGuire?" Miss Ungermeyer said sharply.  
  
Lizzie cringed once she realized that she had spoken way to loudly. She turned around and faced Miss Ungermeyer. "Sorry Miss Ungermeyer, I.. Ah...."  
  
"That's what I thought," Miss Ungermeyer said coldly cutting Lizzie off. Feeling that any action against Lizzie was not warranted, Miss Ungermeyer turned around and continued on her way.  
  
"That was close," Lizzie thought to herself. She turned and again headed for her class.  
  
Although she had been interrupted by Miss Ungermeyer, she was still able to make it to her first period with plenty of time to spare. As she waited her thought drifted back to happier times. Back when the three amigos were together. Surprisingly, her thoughts brought happiness not sadness. For the past few weeks this had been a ritual she kept every time she was alone. Before she new it Miranda had entered the room, and Lizzie's thoughts returned to the present.  
  
The day proceeded more or less like Lizzie had expected, just another ordinary day. Lizzie sat and listen to Miranda talk about whatever, occasionally interjecting thoughts of her own Soon it was lunch time, again it was totally predictable. They sat on the floor of the hallway, eating their chicken casserole. Finally lunch ended and the two girls split up.  
  
Lizzie walked onto the black wood floor of the stage and took her seat behind the table. She placed her script in front of her with all intentions of working on her lines before the bell rang. As she sat and mouthed her words she was interrupted.  
  
"May I sit here?"  
  
Lizzie turned around, and was surprised to see Brad standing beside her. He was six foot tall, blue eyes, and perfectly combed blond hair that in Lizzie's eyes made Ethan's hair look as ugly. The best part was that he was a junior, and drove his car to school.  
  
Lizzie hesitated in her reply. Partially because she was overwhelmed at how cute he looked, but mainly she was wondering why he had chosen her. After a few seconds the perfect smile on Brad's face began to fade. This forced Lizzie back to reality. "Oh, yeah, sure." she stuttered.  
  
Brad took sat down and turned to Lizzie. "My name is Brad," he politely said extending his hand to Lizzie.  
  
Lizzie extended her hand and the two shook. "I know," she replied, "I am Lizzie." Lizzie was still confused by his actions and as such showed as little emotion as she could.  
  
"I know," Brad chuckled. Lizzie too laughed, easing the tension between the two.  
  
Lizzie stared at Brad waiting for him to make the next move. As she waited, she soon found herself lost in his gorgeous blue eyes. The look on his face told Lizzie that he was nervous. This realization threw Lizzie's thought into full motion, "Why is he so nervous, he isn't going to ask me out is he? No, he is to good for me," she thought. As thoughts continued to twirl around in her head, Brad finally broke the silence.  
  
"You are a good actress," he said. Lizzie smiled and bit her lip as Brad continued. "I have been watching you during rehearsals, and you have greatly improved. You could maybe get the lead in the next production."  
  
Lizzie felt like she was floating on air. A comment like that could only mean one thing. He was going to ask her out. "Thanks," she said trying not to sound to excited. Lizzie knew that this was what she needed to get over David.  
  
"No problem," Brian replied. "I was wondering if you might want to go out for dinner Next Friday night after the show?"  
  
Lizzie fought back her urge to scream as loud as she could. "I would love to," she said calmly.  
  
The bell rang signaling the beginning of fourth period. Brad got up to leave, but Lizzie stopped him. "But I won't have time to get ready."  
  
Brad continued to get up, "It doesn't matter what you wear, Lizzie McGuire. You already have my attention." And with that he went to his chair and the rehearsal began.  
  
Throughout the rehearsal and her next class, Lizzie could not think of anything but Brad. "How could a boy so cute and charming ever be interested in me?" she thought to herself. Just the thought of it made her happy. For the first time in weeks the smile on her face remained for more that a minute and she walked with an unusual spring in her step. She felt so good.  
  
Once fifth period was over Lizzie hurried back to her locker to pick up her calculator before she ran to tell Miranda the news.  
  
"Dave," she squeaked as she ran into the room. Lizzie flung her arms around her gave him a kiss on the cheek. This surprised everyone in the room, Miranda included, and especially Dave. "It's such a great day, isn't it?" Lizzie smiled as she asked the question.  
  
Lizzie noticed that Dave's face had turned bright red, so she remover her arms from around him. For the first time since she entered the room, Lizzie moved her eyes away from Dave. What she saw shocked her. Half of the chairs had been moved to the side of the room, and the other half had been turned so they faced the side blackboard instead of the front blackboard. "Ah, what's with the desks?" Lizzie asked pointing to the group of desks that had been stacked next to the wall.  
  
"Oh, ah, when we came in all the desks were rearranged so that they were facing the side board. We did not know where to sit, so we decided to move the desks and sit on the floor." Dave replied.  
  
Lizzie looked at him as thought he had completely lost his mind. Sitting on the floor was something she did in kindergarten, not in an advanced high school math class. "You actually think that Mrs. Bell will let us sit on the floor?"  
  
"It's worth a shot." Dave replied. Thanks to Lizzie's grand entrance everybody had stopped working and had been staring at the two. With Dave taking the lead, he and everybody, except Miranda, returned to moving the desks. "If she says no, then we will replace the desks. If she says yes, then we get to sit on the floor. Whatever happens, happens."  
  
The more Lizzie thought about the situation, the more sense it made to her. This class WAS different that any other class. She knew that nobody ever told what happened inside the room. "It would also be nice to be able to lay down and take notes," she thought to herself. "Cool," she said aloud as she walked over to Miranda and picked up a desk.  
  
"What was that?" Miranda was practically shouting at Lizzie with one had on her waist, and the other pointing to Dave.  
  
Lizzie quickly realized that the desk was two heavy for her to pick up and move so she started to push it over to the wall. "What was what?" she asked with a big smile on her face.  
  
Miranda walked over to where Lizzie had just placed her desk so that the two could talk without the entire class hearing. "You, kissed Dave, ON THE CHEEK!" Miranda stuck out her arms, palms up, as if she was presenting Dave.  
  
Lizzie looked over at Dave, and then let out a little giggle. She desperately wanted to tell her best friend what had happened after lunch, but with Miranda going crazy, it was more fun to let her suffer a bit longer.  
  
"And your happy," Miranda continued, "not that its bad, but WHAT IS GOING ON?" Miranda took a second to process everything. It was just so strange that a few hours ago Lizzie was still in her bad mood, and now she was so happy. So happy in fact, that Miranda had only seen her this happy once before, when she meet Ronny. An explosion went off inside Miranda's head as she put her thoughts together. "You are going out with Dave, aren't you? Lizzie, I though we agreed that you could not date him."  
  
Miranda's accusation popped Lizzie's bubble, and sent her emotions crashing back down to earth. "No Miranda," She yelled. Not that dating Dave was a bad thing, she actually thought he was a great guy, but when compared to Brad. "And we didn't agree on anything, Miranda," she continued, "you agreed that I could not date him, and you still have not told me why."  
  
Miranda leaned in so that her words could only be heard by Lizzie. "Because he is a nerd." She stepped back to see Lizzie surprised to hear her say such a thing. "What? Dating Dave would destroy your reputation."  
  
"What reputation," Lizzie coldly replied. "I went on a date with Larry. I am pretty sure that my reputation has already been destroyed."  
  
Miranda flinched when Lizzie said Larry's name. "You like Larry, don't you?" Lizzie asked putting the pieces of the puzzle together.  
  
"What, NO," Miranda shouted as her face cringed in disgust.  
  
"Hay, are you two going to talk or move desks?" Dave kiddingly asked.  
  
Lizzie laughed at Dave's remark, "I don't know about Miranda, but I'm moving desks." She then walked over and began moving another desk.  
  
Miranda soon followed and helped Lizzie carry the desk to the side. "OK, the last time I saw you so happy was when you hooked up with Ronny, now dish."  
  
"His name is Brad," Lizzie quickly answered. "He asked me out before Advanced Drama.  
  
The two placed the desk down, and seeing that there were no more desks to move they proceeded to their spots on the floor. "What's his last name, is he cute, when is the date?" Miranda's questions came so fast that Lizzie did not have time to answer.  
  
"Well I don't know his last name, but he is so cute that I think it might be Pitt." Lizzie and Miranda took a second to giggled and lay down on the floor before Lizzie continued. "And we are going out next Friday."  
  
"Heard Brad asked you out," David said before sitting down next to Eric. "You gotta love pity dates."  
  
"What would you know about dates?" Miranda questioned. "You have only been out on one date in you entire life, and that was like two years ago."  
  
"This coming from Rebou...." David's words trailed off.  
  
Lizzie took the opportunity to take her own stab at their former best friend. "Ah, what was that David?"  
  
"Really bad shoes," David quickly replied covering his previous statement. "This coming from a girl with really bad shoes." Realizing how stupid he sounded, David turned around.  
  
"Right," Lizzie said before breaking up into laughter.  
  
The other students in the class quickly began laughing with Lizzie. Although Miranda was laughing, it was only to hide her real feelings of being scared, relived, and confused. She was scared of the fact that David still had some dirt on her that could destroy her, and not to mention her relationship with Lizzie. She was relived that he did not let it out, and confused as to why he did not do so, but instead chose embarrass himself. 


	8. Breaking a Leg

AN: Well, I have defiantly fallen behind schedule. I will try as hard as I can to keep writing, but spring is always the hardest semester. Anyways, I did not like the original chapter 8 so I rewrote it to make it fit with my overall plans. I bet that many of you will not like it, but it defiantly sets up the ending. Well enjoy.  
  
Chapter 8: Breaking a Leg  
  
Lizzie looked at the pile of homework sitting on her desk. Slowly, she reached over an picked up the first notebook. Although it was Friday, and the opening night of her play, she still needed something to take her mind off of her miserable excuse for a life.  
  
Earlier in the day, Miranda had seen Brad talking with Ken, Greg, and Dan. Instinctively she thought that the date was just a plot for David to once again humiliate Lizzie. "But he is on the football team," Lizzie retaliated, unwilling to admit that she had made yet another bad choice of guys. "Of course he is going to talk to those guys, it doesn't mean anything."  
  
Miranda kept pressuring Lizzie to cancel the date, but Lizzie still refused. Now, sitting alone at her desk, Lizzie wished that she had taken Miranda's advice. She reached over and picked up her purple phone, and dialed Brad's number.  
  
Lizzie let the phone ring six times before hanging up. Unable to cancel her date, she returned her attention to her homework. As she opened her science folder, all the papers inside fell to the floor.  
  
"Ugh," Lizzie groaned as she bent over to pick up the papers. She began putting them back in order of the due date. This was the first time she had actually looked back at her work. They started off as usual mostly B's with a couple of A's thrown in. Soon the B's turned to C's then to C- 's. Finally Lizzie picked up the last two homework assignments, both D's. "Wow," Lizzie sighed realizing just how much her work had been slipping. She did not go through the rest of her subjects, but she knew they were the same way.  
  
"Are you ready to go," Lizzie mom asked, sticking her head through the door. "You don't want to be late for your acting debut."  
  
"Ah, yeah mom," Lizzie replied, quickly shoving the last two homeworks in her folder, "I'll be right down."  
  
The ride to the high school was very quiet. "You alright sweety?" Lizzie mom asked, breaking the silence. "You look nervous."  
  
"Yeah, I am just a little nervous," Lizzie replied. After answering her mothers question, Lizzie turned an stared out the window. As she watched the houses fly by, she realized how much easier it was to lie to her mom each time she did it. It was now to the point where she was doing it every day to keep her mom from knowing just how bad her life had become.  
  
"Well why don't you tell me what your play is about," Jo suggested. "It will keep you mind busy."  
  
Lizzie turned and looked at her mom. She really did not want to talk about the play right now, but decided it would help her cover if she did. "It's about the jury in a murder trial," Lizzie started.  
  
"A murder trial," Jo exclaimed, shocked that the school would allow freshman to be involved with such things.  
  
"Don't worry mom, it's just the deliberation process. There is no violence or anything like that happening." Lizzie's comment had effectively removed the concern from her mothers face so she continued her story. "Initially, there is only one guy who thinks the defendant is innocent. He reexamines the evidence and convinces everybody else that the boy is not guilty."  
  
Lizzie's story had taken up most of the time, and after about a minute of silence they had arrived at the school. "Well here you are," Jo said, bringing the van to a stop. "Break a leg,"  
  
"Thanks mom," Lizzie replied as she got out of the van. She walked across the wet grass and through the stage entrance.  
  
After entering the school. Lizzie quickly made her way to the dressing room. Once inside, she changed into a white blouse, with a blue skirt and jacket. With her costume on, she made her way to the makeup room.  
  
At fist glance the makeup room looked like normal. There were many makeup kits open with their contents strewn about the counters. Lizzie always thought it was interesting how the guys always took so much care with their makeup, when they were slobs with everything else. Upon further inspection Lizzie notices that there were a lot of non-makeup related items at everybody work aria. Flowers, notes, and balloons were the most popular items she saw. As she approached her chair she noticed that she had some of her own.  
  
On the table were two roses, and a purple bear. Lizzie sat down, picked up the bear, and read the attached note aloud. "Lizzie, Sorry for being a dirk about Brad. I hope your date goes well. Break a leg. Miranda."  
  
"Oh, Miranda," Lizzie sighed. Lizzie set the bear in her lap and picked up her second gift, which was a yellow rose. Attached was a small piece of paper which read "Break a leg Lizzie." Lizzie was puzzled by the gift. "Hay Barbra, did you see who put this here?" she asked the girl sitting next to her. Barbra shook her head no. Lizzie turned and asked others students the same thing, but no one saw who it was.  
  
Lizzie returned to her station and picked up the third, and final gift. This one was a red rose stuck inside a folded piece of paper. Lizzie opened the paper and began reading it. "Dear Lizzie, I can not wait until your acting debut. I will be in the front row cheering you on. Break a leg. Brad"  
  
"Ah, that is so sweat," Lizzie squeaked. She gave each gift one more look, before setting them off to the side. With the presents out the way, she turned her attention to her makeup. As she applied the layers of makeup needed for the stage, her nerves gradually became more apparent. On more than one occasion, Lizzie needed to stop what she was doing because her hands were twitching and she was afraid that she would make a mistake.  
  
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to control herself. "You can do this, you have done bigger things than this, this is not nearly as bad as Rome, at least you have more than one days practice this time." When her self imposed encouragement did not help her she tried running through her lines, but still was unable to calm herself. She tried as hard as she could to continue applying her makeup amongst the jitters of her hands and the surges of pain from her stomach.  
  
After about thirty minutes Lizzie was finished with her makeup. "Hay Barbra, does my makeup look ok?" Although Lizzie had done her own makeup for some time, the ability to correctly apply her stage makeup had alluded her.  
  
"I think you finally got the hang of it McGuire," Barbra replied sounding impressed.  
  
"Barbra," Hank, her boyfriend, cut in, "I am going to check out the audience, you coming?"  
  
"Sure," she replied. "What about you McGuire?"  
  
"Why not," Lizzie replied as the three headed towards the stage.  
  
Barbra and Hank blocked Lizzie from being able to see anything, so she walked to the other side of the stage to take a peek. She pulled back the curtain just enough to see most of the auditorium. The first thing she noticed was Brad sitting in the from row as promised. Lizzie heart stared to beat faster at the site of him sitting there. Almost immediately after she spotted Brad, she spotted her best friend. Her jaw dropped as she saw Miranda sitting next to Larry Tudgeman, the two laughing and carrying on. "This can not be happening," Lizzie quietly said to herself.  
  
Lizzie continued scanning the audience, her parents and brother were there, along with Miss Ungermeyer, Kate, Ethan, David, and half of the school. The more she scanned the audience, the more people she recognized. With each person she recognized her level of nervousness increased.  
  
Unable to take it anymore, Lizzie threw the curtain back into place and leaned against the wall with her eyes shut. "There is no way I am going out on stage," she said, her voice quivering.  
  
"There you are," Dave said as he walked through an open stage door. Lizzie jumped at the sound of his voice. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I just need to give you your microphone."  
  
"Oh, yeah, thanks. I'll go put it on right away," Lizzie said, her voice still quivering. She took the microphone from Dave and headed to the dressing room.  
  
"There is no time." Dave grabbed Lizzie arm before she could get away. "The play starts in a few minutes and Mr. O'Hara is calling for everyone to meet in the mini-theater. Take off your jacket and turn around. I will tape the cord to your shirt."  
  
Lizzie's head was pounding due to her nerves, and the shock she had just received, and was not thinking properly. "What if I take off my jacket?"  
  
Dave softly laughed. "If you take off you jacket, you will have more problems than just the cord. Mr. O'Hara will kill you for not sticking to your blocking." Lizzie closed her eyes as she realized how dumb her question was. Dave reached down and clipped the wireless pack to the back of Lizzie's skirt, an action that, without the microphone, would probably get him slapped by a girl. But Dave did his job with the utmost professionalism. He took out a roll of Gaffers Tape, ripped off a few small pieces, and began taping the cord to Lizzie's blouse. "Don't worry about the crowd, there is not that many of them. They haven't even opened the balcony yet."  
  
"It's not that," Lizzie voice shook as she spoke. "Half of the school is out there. If I do something stupid, everyone will be talking about it Monday."  
  
David laughed again. "Don't tell Barbra, but you could forget half of your lines, and still blow her out of the water. I think your reputation will survive the night." Dave put the last piece of tape on. "Alright, put you jacket back on and we will see if this works."  
  
Dave handed Lizzie her jacket, and she put it back on. Dave fixed the microphone to her lapel, and reached behind her and turned on the transmitter on. "There you go," Dave said flashing a smile. "Now go break a leg."  
  
"Thanks," Lizzie replied as she turned to go to do her warm ups. Although Dave's words had really brought no encouragement, and she was terrified of the crowd by the time she had entered the schools min-theater.  
  
Lizzie quickly joined the rest of the cast in their warmup routines. Usually the constant stretching and pretending to be a tree had helped Lizzie clear her head, but just like every other remedy she had tried, it was no use.  
  
As Lizzie walked with the others to the stage, she searched nervously for a way out of doing the play. Unfortunately her understudy was working, so that option would not work. Before she realized it she was standing just off stage. As the lights began to dim one final desperate thought arose in her head, RUN, but before she had the chance the stage lights brightened and she found herself following another student onto the stage.  
  
Lizzie clumsily found her way to her seat, almost knocking over three chairs on her way. Once in her seat, she sat and waited for her first line. As she waited she looked up at the bright lights, then down at the black void where the audience was sitting. Although she could not make out any faces, she could see just enough of the outline of the audience to know they were there.  
  
"Guilty," came a call from the boy sitting next to Lizzie.  
  
This pulled Lizzie back into the play. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sitting their on stage like a fool, Lizzie McGuire had forgotten her first line.  
  
"Ah, ah, not guilty," Lizzie finally stated after a few minutes of silence. She then smiled in the satisfaction that she had remembered her line. As she awaited the next line to be said, Lizzie noticed that everyone was staring at her. "What?" she snapped forgetting that she was wearing a microphone.  
  
The boy next to her quickly grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, which were part of the props, and quickly wrote the word guilty, and showed it to Lizzie.  
  
"Oh, I mean guilty," Lizzie said completely breaking character, and letting her nervousness show. She then cringed as laughter came from the audience. This was how Lizzie's performance continued throughout the night. With each line there grew more and more laughs from the audience, which helped to lessen Lizzie's performance.  
  
After what Lizzie thought was an eternity, the play drew to a close. All the characters had changed their vote to not guilty, and Foreman had informed the guard that the deliberation process was over. Slowly the students stood up and headed for the door.  
  
Lizzie no longer cared about the blocking, she was only interested in getting off stage. She quickly got up and walked as fast as she could towards the exit. As she made her way behind the table, Barbra pushed back her chair and stood up. Lizzie tried to sidestep the new obstacle, but her feet became entwined in one another and she felt her body falling towards the ground.  
  
For a moment, Lizzie thought that she had been spared the humiliation of falling to the ground as she collided with a piece of temporary walling that made the walls of the deliberation room set. A second after hitting the set, the wall began to fall away from Lizzie. She, and the rest of the cast, watched in horror as the wall crashed to stage floor, causing a domino effect and the other pieces of the wall soon followed.  
  
Halfway through the collapse of the set, the lights quickly shut off, and the curtains quickly closed. Once the curtains were fully closed, the work lights shot on. Lizzie found herself staring at the fallen walls with everyone else staring at her. Slowly the tears began to build up behind Lizzie's eyes.  
  
"Good job," the boy playing the Foreman said as he began walking off stage.  
  
A couple of students followed the Foreman's lead and told Lizzie just how bad her performance was, but most just quietly headed for the changing rooms.  
  
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to hold back her tears, but when Barbra put her hand on Lizzie's shoulder to comfort her, Lizzie broke down. With large tears falling down her cheeks, Lizzie ran past the fallen walls, and strait to the makeup room, ripping off her microphone and dropping it on the floor as she walked through the stage door.  
  
"Miss McGuire," A voice behind her called. Lizzie turned to see Mr. O'Hara standing behind her. "Listen Lizzie, I know this will not be easy for you to hear, so I am going to just come out and say it. I am going to but your understudy in for the remainder of the shows, and I want to see you in my office Monday."  
  
Lizzie did not know how to react to the news. On the one hand, she was not going to get embarrassed again, but on the other, she had just been thrown out of the play. Turning back around, Lizzie opened the door to the makeup room. The tears stopped falling as she entered the room, and she slowly made her way past the emptily chairs until she reached hers. Slowly she sat down and looked at the reflection in the mirror, which was slightly blurred from a few tears remaining in her eyes.  
  
Lizzie wiped away the tears and began removing the already smeared makeup. When she was just about finished, the door opened and other members of the cast entered the room. At first Lizzie did not pay them any attention, but as more people entered Lizzie could not ignore the fact that nobody was saying anything, nor could she ignore the burning sensation on the back of her neck, due to their stares. Lizzie quickly finished removing the rest of her makeup and pushed her way through the now crowded room and retreated to the empty hall.  
  
Unsure of where she was going, Lizzie wandered the halls thinking about what had just happened. As she turned a corner she recognized a tall boy with dark curly hair standing outside the prop shop. The last person she wanted to see now was David, so she quickly turned around began to walk away.  
  
"I wanted to thank you McGuire," David yelled at her. Hearing his voice, Lizzie turned back around to face him. "I was worried that I would not be able to find any interesting footage to put in my review Monday, but thanks to your acting skills..."  
  
"You are NOT going to air that during the school newscast," Lizzie interrupted.  
  
"Why not?" David asked, pulling a small videotape from his backpack. "I think the rest of the school deserves to see this."  
  
"David," Lizzie shouted back, "that would destroy me."  
  
"And that would be a bad thing because?"  
  
"DAVID," Lizzie shouted at the top of her lunges as the tears began to reappear. She was about to tell him how much like the old Kate he had become, when she noticed his smile growing. Lizzie immediately realized that David was fulling enjoying the argument, so with a loud "UGH" she turned around and quickly walked bach around the corner. As she turned the corner she noticed a pair of legs from a guy she was sure had just overheard her conversation with David. Not looking up to identify the boy, Lizzie quickened her pace as she headed towards the doors at the far end of the hall.  
  
Lizzie wiped away a tear as she walked out into the crisp autumn night. Because of the slight chill in the air, and her mood, she folder her hands tightly across her chest in an effort to keep warm. "I can't stand him," She admitted to the cool night air. "We used to be best friends," she said with a sigh.  
  
"You and David were best friends?" a strange voice said behind her.  
  
"Yes we were," Lizzie said, slowly she turned her head to look at the stranger, "now would you please leave me alone..." Lizzie's head was turned just enough that she could see that it was Brad standing behind her. She also recognized the shoes as the ones she head just seen in the hallway.  
  
"I'm sorry," Brad said softly, "I just thought that you might need some company, or would you rather be alone?"  
  
"Thanks," Lizzie sweetly replied, "I could use someone to talk to." A smile grew on Lizzie's face, creating a drastic contrast from her cheeks, which were red from crying.  
  
"No problem," Brad said. Noticing the slight chill in the air, Brad, being the gentleman he was, removed his jacket and draped it over Lizzie's shoulders. Lizzie accepted the offer and drew the coat tight around her. "So what happened?" Brad asked as they began walking away from the school.  
  
The moon light guided their way to a local park about a half mile from the high school. It took Lizzie the entire walk their, and then some, to tell Brad what happened. To Brad's dismay she mistook his question. Lizzie never told him what happened on stage like Brad wanted, instead she rambled on about her relationship with David. Although this irritated Brad, what boy wants to hear the girl he likes talk about another boy that she likes, he realized that it was something that she really wanted, and needed, to talk about so he allowed her to continue.  
  
"Well that explains a few things," Brad said as the two sat down on a park bench.  
  
"Explains what?" Lizzie's words had no emotion behind them. The sad feelings that she had from telling her story, combined with her being happy that Brad was being so wonderful listening to her, and the emotions of her performance had left Lizzie drained of emotion and energy.  
  
"Well, why he kept bugging me to tell him were I was taking you tonight, and why JB told me that he is obsessed with humiliating you and that I shouldn't tell him anything."  
  
"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Lizzie asked, suddenly remembering her conversation with Miranda earlier in the day.  
  
"Well he kept bugging me so finally I told him that I was taking you to the Holly Rigatoni." Lizzie's Eyes widened and her moth dropped as she heard the bad news. "Too bad I had reservations at The Palomino." A smile grew on both Lizzie and Brad's face.  
  
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, I forgot about our date," Lizzie said apologetically. "We can still go."  
  
"It's all right. We can stay if you want to." Brad slowly reached out and took Lizzie's hand to comfort her.  
  
"Thanks." The two exchanged another smile before falling into an awkward silence.  
  
The silence lasted for what the two thought was hours. Lizzie looked up and was admiring the stars. Brad was also admiring the stars, only he was looking at the reflection in Lizzie's eyes. He sensed that she wanted to talk about what had happened earlier that night, but was unsure how to bring it up. "So what happed to you on stage tonight," he finally asked. "You were so great during rehearsals."  
  
Lizzie simply replied, "Stage fright." She looked over at Brad who had a look of disbelief. "I don't do well in front of crowds. During my junior high graduation speech I tore down a curtain, it ended up covering the entire class."  
  
"But what about Rome?" Brad questioned.  
  
"I... I don't know," Lizzie replied as her eyes returned skyward. "There was so many things going on that night, that I guess I never really thought about the performance that much. I mean, the red carpet was so much fun, and right when I was starting to get nervous, Gor..., ah I mean David, who I thought had left the country, showed up and told me that Palo was setting me up." Lizzie turned back to face Brad. "All I thought about before the show was how David managed to save me, just like he always did. It wasn't until I was actually on stage, in front of all those people, that I really got nervous. Luckily I did not have to sing, just move my lips, which I still didn't do very well."  
  
"So that's the secret, you just don't give yourself time to think about your performance?"  
  
"I don't know," Lizzie said, "maybe."  
  
The two once again fell into an awkward silence. This time it would be Lizzie who would speak first. She pulled her hand out of Brad's and placed both of them in her lap. Not wanting to see the reaction to her question on Brad's face she turned away and looked down at the two hands fidgeting nervously. "Brad, why did you ask me out. I mean, Kate told me that I would have a lot of guys lining up to take me out if I wasn't in such a bad mood all the time, and I can't blame them I don't want to be around me sometimes. I just don't have the strength to do anything. I can't do my homework, I can't stand up to my former best friend even thought I have enough dirt on him to permanently destroy him, and I can't get over my stage fright anymore." Tears were now flowing down Lizzie's cheek. She would have continued had Brad not interrupted her by taking her hand in his once more.  
  
"You really want to know why I asked you out?" Lizzie looked at him and nodded between sniffles. "I had noticed the way you had been moping around between classes, but I also noticed how happy you sometimes were."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Right after rehearsal." Lizzie gave him a questioning look. "Every day you always left the stage smiling with your head held high. You voice always sounded so cheerful when you spoke, and you were so polite to everyone. That is until you entered the hallway. Then your smile would fade and you would stare at your feet and hardly acknowledge anyone who talked to you. I just figured that if I could somehow get that girl to come out for more that a few seconds a day, you would be a great person to date."  
  
"Really," Lizzie asked softly.  
  
"Yeah" With his free right hand, Brad gently brushed a few strands of Lizzie's hair and tucked then behind her ear. As he gazed into Lizzie's eyes, Brad rested his hand behind Lizzie's head.  
  
Lizzie felt her heart skip a beat. Even through she never realized that she had ever acted like her former self, Brad had focused on the few seconds when she did, instead of the hours spent in her perpetual bad mood. Slowly her eyes closed and she felt her body slowly lean towards Brad. Why she was doing it she did not know, she only knew that it felt right. As she leaned in, Lizzie felt Brads hand pulling her towards him. She puckered her lips right before What Dreams Are Made Of came bellowing out of her purse.  
  
Lizzie's eyes opened to see that her lips were just a fraction of an inch away from Brad's. She quickly pulled back, which caused Brad to do the same thing, and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. "Hello," she said into the phone.  
  
Miranda's voice came out the other end of the phone. "Lizzie, where are you?"  
  
"In the park, with Brad. Why?" Lizzie responded dazedly.  
  
"Lizzie, you were supposed to meet your parents in the lobby. They would have called you sooner, but your mom's cell phone is dead."  
  
"I'll, I'll be right there." Lizzie looked back at Brad as she hung up the phone. She did not want to go, but she knew her parents would be mad. "My parents are waiting."  
  
"Can I walk you back?" Brad asked.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Lizzie and Brad left the bench and started walking back to the school. The trip back did not take long as Lizzie was practically running. Brad, being about six inches taller than Lizzie, was having no problems keeping up with her.  
  
"Lizzie," Brad said as they walked across the schools parking lot, "the fair is coming to town, and I was wondering if I could take you?"  
  
"Sounds great, if I am not grounded," Lizzie smiled as she reached for the door.  
  
"Ooo. You'd better not come in with me. My dad doesn't really like me dating you. I don't think I could explain being alone with you."  
  
"Ok," Brad said after a moment.  
  
"Thanks," Lizzie said. She leaned up and kissed Brad on the cheek before adding, "For everything."  
  
Lizzie then slipped through the door and towards her worried parents. 


	9. Mind Games

AN: Sorry for the extremely long delay in updating, a little over four months. I have been busy with my engineering team. I hate to brag, but I think this deserves it, The nearly 200 teams were whittled down to a little over forty in regional contests, and the forty plus, were invited to the national competition where we placed well inside the top ten. So please forgive me for the lateness of this chapter, I actually had only the first few paragraphs written before this week. Well enough of that, I really like this chapter so read and review.  
  
Chapter 9: Mind Games  
  
"I CAN'T BELIEVE HE GOT US AGAIN!" Melina said before slamming her lunch tray down on the table.  
  
Mat, Melina, and Lanny turned around in their seats and stared across the cafeteria at their teacher Mr. Dig, Lanny hand an especially disgusted look on his face. "I know Lanny," Mat replied to Lannie's expression, "I thought for sure the double bucket over the door would work. I mean, it worked on Adam." Mat turned to his right where Melina was sitting. "Ah, you still have some honey in your hair."  
  
Melina shot Mat an extremely evil look, warning him that he should not continue. Mat and the others returned to staring at Mr. Dig. "Look at him," Mat said angrily. "On the outside, a goofy little man, and on the inside, a cold blooded prank killer."  
  
The trio turned around and Lanny shot Melina an evil look. "Your right Lanny," Mat interpreted, "it wasn't the best idea to wait until Friday morning to prank Mr. Dig, he knew it would be coming today."  
  
"Oh and the Monday morning pranks were oh so successful," Melina retaliated. "We just need to think of better pranks."  
  
"CNN?" Mat asked.  
  
"Yeah, but we can't have it at my house," Melina replied. "My parents are having the house fumigated."  
  
"Well I guess we will have it at my house then." Matt said. "Now lets go enjoy our recess." The three stood up and returned their trays before heading off to the playground.  
  
Lizzie McGuire let out a big yawn as she stretched her arms. Slowly walking down the stairs, Lizzie noticed how unusually quiet it was for a Saturday morning. The McGuire house would be busy with Jo and Sam rushing to get the house work done and breakfast cooked before Sam ventured off to his softball game. If Matt was around you could bet that at least one of his friends would also be over making all sorts of commotion. As it was their was no signs of anybody inhabiting the house except for the faint sounds of a news report coming from the TV.  
  
As strange as it was, Lizzie was enjoying the silence. The day before had been terrible with half the school laughing at her and cracking jokes. Lizzie was hoping to enjoy the next two days in peace before David's tape would be shown to the entire school.

Lizzie walked into the kitchen and searched for the cereal. After pouring a bowl of Lucky Charms she made her way to the living room in hopes of wasting the morning watching cartoons. As she turned the corner, Lizzie was shocked by what she saw. Matt, Melina, and Lanny were all sitting on the couch. Each had a book in hand and were intensely reading them, while pieces of paper were spread across the coffee table with notes scribbled on them. Rejected pieces of paper were crumpled up and discarded on the floor.  
  
Lizzie approached the three with no intention of letting them ruin her plans. "Move over dog breath," Lizzie barked at her little brother. She then pushed him closer to Melina giving her enough space to join the trio on the couch.  
  
"Hey we were watching that," Matt exclaimed as his sister changed the channel on the TV.  
  
"YOU were watching CNN?" she coldly asked.  
  
"Yes we were," Matt replied matter-of-factly. "Now give me that." Matt reached for the remote in his sisters hands, but Lizzie was to fast. Before he could grab it she quickly placed it under the seat cushion of the couch.  
  
"Oh, and I bet you were so intensely studding dads old collage textbooks," Lizzie sarcastically replied as she tried to block Matt from getting the remote.  
  
Matt tried to get around his sister so that he could continue watching tv, but it soon became apparent that he was outmatched. "MOM," Matt yelled knowing that a ruling from his parents would be in his favor.  
  
Lizzie grabbed the collar of Matt's shirt and pulled his face close to hers. "Nice try, but to bad mom and dad aren't here dirk."  
  
Matt pulled back as Lizzie let go of his shirt. "And you called me dog breath," Matt replied as he pretended like he was going to gag. Half way through his act, Matt felt his sisters shove him to the ground in retaliation.  
  
"Lizzie, Matt, what is going on."  
  
Lizzie's momentary joy of beating her brother quickly ended as she looked up to see both of her parents standing in the hallway. Quickly Lizzie searched for an excuse to try and get her parents on her side. It would be tricky, she knew, but it just needed a little finesse.  
  
"We were watching TV and Lizzie came in and changed the channel," Matt yelled.  
  
"So much for finesse," Lizzie thought. Before her brother could captivate her parents with his side of the story, Lizzie interjected. "They were watching CNN, and they weren't even paying attention to it. They were playing with dad's old textbooks."  
  
"My books," Sam replied as he began removing them from harms way.  
  
"We need those," Matt whined. "How else are we going to plan our next prank."  
  
"Oh really, you know Calculus?" Jo questioned her son.  
  
"Not really," Matt said timidly. "Lanny is the Calculus man, Melina is great at Physics, and I just work with electrical circuits."  
  
"Ok, so what is the derivative of x cubed?" Sam questioned the group.  
  
."Dad, that's so easy even I know that the answer is three x squared." Matt replied looking insulted.  
  
"Didn't you fail Calculus your first try?" Jo whispered into her stunned husbands ear.  
  
Slowly Sam recovered from the shock of seeing his son doing Calculus and put together a semi-coherent sentence. "Well, ah, you kids, ah, keep up the good work, and feel free to, ah, use as many of my, ah textbooks as you, ah want." He placed the books on the coffee table, where they were quickly snatched up by the trio. Slowly Mr. McGuire stepped back beside his wife still trying to fully comprehend the situation.  
  
"Now Lizzie," her mother broke in, "you know the rules. Whoever has the TV first gets to choose the channel." Her voice was soft, but authoritative. Lizzie knew she had no chance of arguing, but then when has that ever stopped her.  
  
"But mom.."  
  
"Thank you," Matt said as he reached under Lizzie's cushion and removed the remote control. He smiled in delight of winning the battle as he punched in the numbers and changed the channel back to CNN.  
  
"BUT MOM," Lizzie tried again a little louder, "not a single one of them was paying any attention to what was on."  
  
"Say, why are you watching CNN anyways?" Sam asked, returning to his old self again.  
  
"Oh, we use that to come up with ideas," Melina said without ever looking up from her Physics book.  
  
"Yea," Matt added, "we hear things on the news that spark an idea for a prank. Like there is supposed to be this special on a girl who totally humiliated herself in front of her school. Should be worth a look"  
  
"You actually believe them?" Lizzie questioned her parents. "Last year Matt needed a monkey to do his math homework, now you think he knows Calculous?"  
  
"That's enough Lizzie," her mom scolded.  
  
"NO IT NOT," Lizzie snapped back, as she broke out into a yelling fit. "Don't you see what's going on here? A couple of months ago these three were annoying, but normal. Now, thanks to Mr. Dig, they are turning into pocket protector wearing little NERDS like dad."  
  
Lizzie felt better the moment she was through. She did not know why she had gone off like that, just that with everything else going on she figured she just needed to vent. As quick as the relief of letting off some steam, the seriousness of the situation crashed down upon her. There were few things that she could not say or do, one of the biggest was call her dad a nerd.  
  
"Listen here young lady," her dad waved his finger at her while he scolded, "I don't know what exactly has been keeping you in such a bad mood lately, but that gives you no right to talk to me like that. Some day, all those kids you called nerds are going to rise up and...."  
  
"It's on," Matt shouted inadvertently saving his sister.  
  
Everyone, including Sam, instinctively turned their attention to the TV.  
  
"Well she is back," the anchor announced. "Many of you might remember this video we showed you last spring." The entire McGuire family went silent as the video of Lizzie falling during her junior high graduation ceremony came on the screen.  
  
"They're still showing this?" Lizzie moaned with embarrassment.  
  
"Looks like that wasn't enough for this little blond haired girl," the anchor continued while Lizzie watched in fear of what was about to come. "Yesterday we received this tape of her at a recent school play." Tears began flowing down Lizzie's cheek as the events of two nights previous were replayed on the screen.  
  
"I thought you weren't going to send in any more tapes," Melina said quietly to Matt, her face inches away from his. "I thought after the graduation tape I made it clear that you had to speak to me before doing anything."  
  
"I didn't send it in," Matt replied trying hard to hide his fear.  
  
"MATT," Jo yelled. Although Matt and Melina's conversation was quiet and had gone unnoticed by everyone else in the room, Jo had overheard the conversation. Quickly she moved into position to punish her youngest child. "You were the one that sent in Lizzie's graduation tape."  
  
"WHAT!" Lizzie yelled. "I AM GOING TO CRUSH YOU, YOU LITTLE WEASEL!" Lizzie ran across the room towards her soon to be dead little brother. Before she could reach Matt, Jo stepped in the way. "LET ME AT HIM," Lizzie demanded as she tried to push her way around her mother.  
  
"Lizzie, go to your room," Mrs. McGuire demanded.  
  
"But mom..."  
  
"NOW!"  
  
"UH," Lizzie yelled as she conceded to her mothers demand.  
  
"Lanny, Melina," Jo continued, "I think you two need to leave."  
  
"Ah, sure thing Mrs. McGuire," Melina said as she and Lanny grabbed the papers they were working on and headed home.  
  
"Now Matt," his mother began. Matt mentally made himself ready for the ensuing lecture from his mother. As he expected the lecture continued on for what seemed to be hours. Words like disappointed and angry occurred frequently, as well as phrases such as treat your sister with respect and self control. As usual, Matt paid no attention to the lecture as he had received so many he could guess his mothers next phrase, a feat he managed once but received an extra weeks grounding. Instead, Matt tried to think of a new prank, the idea of an entire Saturday morning wasted did not sit well with him.  
  
"Two months!" Matt exclaimed after hearing the length of his grounding.  
  
"That's right Matt," his mother replied, "just be glad I decided to not take away your right to prank Mr. Dig. But next time you do anything to your sister that will be the first to go. Do you understand me?"  
  
"Yes ma'am," Matt softly replied.  
  
"Now go to your room."  
  
Slowly Matt climbed the steps towards his new prison. For the next two months this was the only place he would see besides school. As he climbed, Matt thought about the punishment he had been given, as well as the threat or losing his pranking privilege. The moment his foot his the top step an idea flashed into his head, quickly Matt ran into his room and began his preparation for the next week. "At least this morning wasn't a complete waist," he thought as an evil laugh escaped his mouth.  
  
"Two months," Melina gasped when Matt called her later that night, "that's insane."  
  
"Listen, I don't have much time," Matt replied into the phone. "I am not supposed to be using the phone so listen up. I need you to gather all the pranking equipment you have around the house. Buckets, sting, electronics, anything that could be used. Call Lanny and tell him to do the same. Bring all of it with you, and I will meet you Monday before school."  
  
"Why?" Melina demanded.  
  
Matt knew that time was against him. If he was caught using the phone he would be adding at least another week to he punishment. But when questioned by Melina it was always best to give in and tell her rather than trying to convince her to trust you. "Ok, here it goes," Matt began. "I was thinking about what my mom said when she grounded me......"  
  
Unknown to Matt, Melina was not the only person he was revealing his plan to that night. Outside his door Lizzie was standing, poised to enter. Originally she was intending on reminding Matt of her superiority, but as she approached and overheard the conversation a new plan formed in her head.  
  
The next Monday Matt, Melina and Lanny arrived outside of Main Street School. "Did you bring your stuff?" Matt asked as he approached. Both Lanny and Melina stepped aside to reveal their contributions to the prank. After Matt added the contents of his backpack, the thee searched the pile for useful items. The pile contained a coupe of buckets, a mop head, about a hundred feet of rope, a few pulleys, the controller to Matt's old RC car, a pair of old speakers, and many other odds and ends.  
  
"Ok," Matt instructed his team, "just remember to act normally. Lets do this."  
  
The trio re-packed their belongings and headed into the school. The day progressed slowly, and the three soon began pulling items out of their bags and fiddling with them. At one point Matt was brave enough to approach Mr. Dig.  
  
"You wouldn't happen to have a nine volt battery would you?" he asked holding the controller to his RC car.  
  
Mr. Dig leaned down on his desk so that his elbows were supporting his upper body. "Now that wouldn't be for me would it Mr. McGuire?" he asked pointing to the controller.  
  
"No," Matt replied. "What would give you that idea?"  
  
Mr. Dig sat down in his chair and fumbled through one of its drawers. After a few seconds he pulled a nine volt battery from the drawer and placed it on the desk for Matt.  
  
"Thanks," Matt replied as he picked up the battery and turned to head back to his desk.  
  
"Mr. McGuire," Mr. Dig called in a voice lacking of any emotions. Matt slowly turned around. "I have heard you are running out of ideas for new pranks."  
  
Matt approached the desk, "Where did you hear that from?" he asked, his voice also lacking emotion. He knew that Mr. Dig was trying to interrogate Matt and get some information from him. He had done this before, and Matt soon found that he was equally able to read Mr. Dig's expressions and learn some information himself. This was the moment he had hoped for, the moment he needed to make the prank reach it's potential.  
  
"Let just say that there is someone that doesn't like you very much."  
  
Matt let out a little snicker before replying. "Well since that could be any number of people, let me assure you that they are wrong. This week we have the ultimate prank set up. And you know the best part is, is that you will never know when it is done."  
  
Mr. Dig remained silent in his chair searching Matts face for information.  
  
"It may already be done," Matt continued before returning to his seat, "or it may not." Matt smiled as he took his seat and started the day's assignment.  
  
For the next few days Matt, Melina, and Lanny continued working on their big prank. Each day they slipped into the classroom before school and during lunch, each day their contraption above the ceiling tiles and hidden behind the bookcases grew larger and more complex, and each day Mr. Dig kept a close eye on each of them, and nightly examined the progress of their contraption.  
  
Although Mr. Dig was keeping a close eye on the three students, Matt was also keeping a close eye on him. A few times each day one of the three would approach Mr. Dig and have a conversation similar to the one he between himself and Matt on Monday. The three would also take turns approaching Mr. Dig an a way that would indicate they were going to prank him. As Matt kept watch, Mr. Dig became more and more paranoid that he was about to be pranked. By Thursday afternoon it had become so bad than any unusual sound or if someone approached him fro behind, he would nearly scream.  
  
"I think that's good enough," Matt whispered to Melina. "We do it tomorrow, bring the balloons."  
  
The next day the three continued their tactics and Mr. Dig had become so paranoid that he refused to sit in his desk. After lunch, instead of enjoying their recess, the three snuck into the room and hid in some cabinets behind Mr. Dig's desk. There they waited until he returned from recess.  
  
As the class returned for outside, Mr. Dig was giving instructions to the class. "Ok everybody," he started, "some of you have a note card on your desk. Just leave it face down for the moment."  
  
As he spoke, Matt, Melina, and Lanny emerged from hiding, each with a balloon and a needle. Slowly they crept closer to their teacher until they were within inches of him. BANG!!!! The noise of three punctured balloons filled the room like a gunshot.  
  
"AAAAAHHHHHH," Mr. Dig yelled as he jumped into the air. Almost instinctively he landed and threw himself under his desk. As he did laughter filled the room followed shortly by cheers and applause.  
  
"Thank you, thank you," Matt addressed the class. "This just shows that it may take a while, but Melina, Lanny, and I will never be out pranked." He then grabbed a hand from each of his co-conspirators and the three gave a final bow.  
  
"But all that stuff?" Mr. Dig questioned as he slowly made his way out from under his desk.  
  
"Just a ruse," Matt happily explained. "We knew that you would be watching us, so we decided to give you something to watch."  
  
"We knew that if we could keep you confused with all of our stuff," Melina continued, "you would never know what was going to happen, and thus paranoia would set it."  
  
"Well very good. Class lets give these three another round of applause." The class rose to their feet as the cheers grew louder once again. Slowly the trio made their way to the back of the class stopping to give many high fives and hand shakes to their classmates along the way.  
  
"Settle down people," Mr. Dig requested once the trio had taken their seats. "Now today we will start studying poetry." The entire class moaned at the news of yet another poetry lesson. "Ah I know that feeling. But I think you will find this first one quite enjoyable. Miss Hunter would you please stand and recite the poem on your note card."  
  
Kathryn Hunter stood up and began reading the word on her card.  
  
Now here is a story I have been meaning to tell,  
of three little students you know so well.  
They tried every day of every week,  
for pranking the teacher was the goal they did seek  
Every week he would shoot them down,  
that was until week number nine came to town.  
Finally an idea they knew had to work,  
unfortunately for them, their teacher was a jerk.  
He yelled and jumped like a trained baboon,  
but deep down he was sad for the loss of their balloon.  
  
The class erupted into laughter as she finished the poem. At the bottom of the note was a deflated balloon. Kathryn removed the balloon and threw it at Matt.  
  
"You knew," Matt exclaimed, "How?"  
  
"It wasn't that hard," Mr. Dig explained. "Like you said, I was watching you three very closely. Now class back to our lesson."  
  
Matt paid no attention to the rest of the class, but rather tried to think of how his perfect plan went wrong. As the lesson progressed, he noticed that he had not been called on to read the note card on his desk. Discreetly he turned the card over and began reading the back.  
  
Brilliant plan, but still not good enough. By the way, did you happen  
to see your sister on CNN last Saturday? I bet she would be really  
angry at whoever sent that in. Please send her my condolence.  
  
"Lizzie," Matt growled. Melina looked over to see what he was talking about. "It was Lizzie who sold us out."  
  
As the day progressed Matt's thoughts shifted from what had gone wrong to formulating a new plan for the following week. As he thought, Matt walked to the book case behind him. Slowly he looked over the words of each book, but none seemed like they would be of any use.  
  
One book near the bottom finally did catch his eye, not because it was of any use, but because of its name, "THE BOOK FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE AND HEAR." Using his instincts, Matt never reached for the book, but he removed the one beside it. At he removed the book, he caught the edge of the strange book. Instead of just the cover moving, the entire book moved. As naturally as he could, Matt skimmed through the book he removed, replaced it, and returned to his seat.  
  
Still trying to act as normal as possible, Matt took a spare piece of paper wrote a note on it and passed it to Melina.  
  
Do not let anyone else see this. Do not throw it away until you get  
home. He didn't need Lizzie, he would have found out anyways. Meet  
me at the park tonight after dinner, bring Lanny.


	10. Friday Night Fever

A.N. Well it took me longer than I had hoped to update. I will be quite busy this fall so I am trying to finish this story before school starts mid August. Expect the next chapter sometime Monday. Also, I know I have never said this so I want to say thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Even though it seems to be a small crowd, I am glad to see that someone is reading it.  
  
Chapter 10: Friday Night Fever  
  
"You two have a nice nigh," Jo commanded as she dropped off Lizzie and Miranda in front of the high school.  
  
"Will do Mrs. McGuire," Miranda replied as she exited the minivan. "Thanks for the ride."  
  
"Yeah mom, thanks," Lizzie moaned as she to stepped out of the vehicle.  
  
After making sure the two girls did not leave anything, Mrs. McGuire pulled out of the schools parking lot. "Ugh, why did you bring me here?" Lizzie asked as she watched he only means of escape disappear into the night.  
  
Miranda grabbed Lizzie by the arm and lead her through the mass of people as she answered the question. "I brought you here because we need to do something normal, something other than sitting in your room dwelling on how bad your life is."  
  
"I do normal things." Lizzie insisted.  
  
"Really? When was the last time you saw a movie, or got a smoothie at the Digital Bean? And I know you have not been to the mall because you have not worn a single new outfit all semester." Miranda hated getting on to Lizzie, but this time it was for her own good, and she owed her one ever since Lizzie helped her with her eating disorder.  
  
"Ok, but why a football game?" Lizzie questioned.  
  
"Well everybody else is here," Miranda paused before she finished, "like Brad."  
  
Lizzie's eyes lit up at the mere mention of Brad. Slowly the frown disappeared and grew into a smile. "Good choice."  
  
"I thought so," Miranda replied as the two shared a rare giggle.  
  
The two paid for their tickets and entered the high schools stadium. The area below the massive concrete structure was packed with people ranging from grade school kids up to senior citizens. Slowly the two girls pushed their way trough the crowd and found the entrance marked "STUDENT SEATING". As the pair passed under the sign, they could not help but be filled with aw as the bright lights of the stadium hit their eyesand the massive empty space in front of them seemed so distant from the dense crowd that was now pushing them up the ramp and towards the seats.  
  
"What?" Lizzie questioned as Miranda stopped dead in her tracks.  
  
Miranda pointed to a group of students to her right. "I guess EVERYBODY is here."  
  
Lizzie looked to where Miranda was pointing. "David," she gasped as she ducked behind Miranda. "Quick, go before he sees us."  
  
Just as David turned his head in their direction, the crowed rose to their feet and cheered as the football team took the field. "That was close," Lizzie said.  
  
"What?" Miranda yelled over the crowed.  
  
"I said that was close," Lizzie yelled back, straining her voice to be heard over the deafening roar. "Now let's go find our seats."  
  
The two slowly maid their way up the stands. Kate and Ethan had already arrived and said that they would save two seats for the girls. Unfortunately both Lizzie and Miranda were short and seeing anybody while the crowed was standing was nearly impossible.  
  
"Are they ever going to sit down?" Lizzie asked after a few minutes of standing in the isle.  
  
A moment later the cheers from the crowd did begin to lessen. "About time," Miranda responded.  
  
Before anybody had a chance to sit down the marching band began playing and the crowed began clapping along with the music. Knowing that she could not get a lucky break twice in a row, Lizzie rolled here eyes and moved farther up the stadium. As she made her way to took for Kate, the crowd started singing the fight song.  
  
Hillridge Norsemen hats off to thee,  
to our colors true we will ever be,  
firm and strong united are we,  
rah, rah, rah, rah,  
rah, rah, rah, rah,  
hats off to Hillridge high.  
  
After three rounds, the band ceased playing and the crowd slowly took their seats.  
  
"Lizzie, Miranda, over here," the two heard a voice call. They both looked over to see Kate and Ethan sitting about three rows up.  
  
"What took you two so long, Boys?" Kate asked as Lizzie and Miranda squeezed their way down the row.  
  
"Yeah, about five hundred of them blocking the entrance," Lizzie replied, her tone was cold and bitter. Miranda took the empty seat next to Ethan, and Lizzie sat next to her. Although she was actually in the middle of the row, she could not move any farther, as there was a railing next to her. "What's this for, to keep us kids from escaping?"  
  
Kate, resorting to her snobby know it all attitude, explained the railing. "That separates the reserved section from the general admission."  
  
"Oh," Lizzie replied feeling about as big as the popcorn laying at her feet. Slowly her eyes moved around the crowd, trying to keep her mind occupied. She had never noticed how large it was before. It ran the entire length of the field and she had counted 25 rows, with at least another five behind her. It amazed her that this many people would show up just to see some guys run around and grab flags from other guys belts. Sure it was fun to play, but it could not be this much fun to watch.  
  
As Lizzie pondered her thoughts, here eyes moved out onto the field. "Look there's Brad." Her finger pointed to help Miranda find him.  
  
"Oh and there's Larry," Miranda responded.  
  
Both Lizzie and Kate leaned forward and stared at Miranda. "Larry?" they questioned in unison.  
  
Miranda's cheeks became red from embarrassment. "Yeah," she began explaining, "he is my tutor." The questioning look on Lizzie's face told Miranda that she was not buying the story. "Oh come on Lizzie," Miranda started in defense, but her mood quickly turned to sadness as she continued, "it's nice to have a guy friend."  
  
"I wouldn't know," Lizzie whispered. She was hurt by her best friends comment, and it obviously showed in her tone, as Miranda quickly put an arm around her to comfort her.  
  
"Excuse me, coming through."  
  
Lizzie looked up to find Ronny Jacobs sitting down on the other side of the railing. "What are you doing here," she demanded.  
  
Ronny gave Lizzie a puzzled look as he pondered her question. "Um, this is my seat," he finally said.  
  
"Yo dude, waz up?" Ethan yelled accost Lizzie and Miranda. "I thought you weren't coming to the game."  
  
"I wasn't," Ronny yelled back as he took his seat, "the regular football reporter got sick, so I go the call."  
  
"Then why aren't you in the press box?" Lizzie asked Ronnie, obviously annoyed by his prescience.  
  
"I didn't have time to get the pass," he explained. "I am just happy to get here before the kickoff."  
  
Just as Ronny finished his sentence, the ball was sent skyward, thus starting the game. As the ball rose, so did the crowd. Standing a cheering loudly, not even Lizzie could not feel the energy of five thousand screaming fans. Unable to see the field, Lizzie quickly stood on here seat. Now able to see, Lizzie spotted the ball just before it fell into the arms of Hillridge High player #7. "Brad's got the ball, Brad's got the ball," Lizzie squealed to Miranda, who was also standing on her seat. Brad gracefully maneuvered past the oncoming players, and dodged five of them before being pounded to the grown.  
  
"Hey you cant hit him like that," Lizzie yelled. "That's a one line penalty." "Yeah," Miranda replied, trying to sound as if she knew what her best friend was saying. A few people in front of them turned around and gave both the girls questioning looks before returning their attention to the game.  
  
"You've never watched a football game before?" Ronnie asked while scribbling note on his notepad.  
  
The crowd had calmed and stared to sit down. Following suit, Lizzie did the sam as she responded. "I've never watched one, but I played a couple of games with Ethan last fall."  
  
Ronnie's mouth fell wide open in shock. "Ethan," he screamed after a few seconds, "Lizzie is the monster that I keep hearing about?"  
  
"Na dude," Ethan shouted back. "She is just the monster when she is on the field." The answer managed to confuse everyone and strengthened their beliefs that Ethan had the I.Q. of a snail.  
  
"Yes, I am the monster," Lizzie proudly stated. The thoughts of intercepting a pass, or running down a running back quickly flowed to the front of her mind, elevating her spirits even more.  
  
The home team snapped the ball. Greg, the quarterback, took a few steps back and threw the ball. About five yards away, a receiver stood wide open, but missed the easy catch. "Why do we throw to that guy?" Ronnie asked against the sighs of the home crowd.  
  
"Well Lizzie, there are a few things you need to know then," Ronnie said after making notes of the last play. "First off, this is tackle football. The players are not trying to grab a flag, they are trying to force the player to the ground."  
  
"Oh," Lizzie replied, feeling embarrassed.  
  
The second play of the game started. The play was another short pass, but this time the receiver caught the ball and gained seven yards. "Yeah, way to go Ken," Lizzie heard a familiar voice from below her yell.  
  
"Third down and three," the announcer reported. Lizzie was again confused. "We have three more lines to go?" she asked her new football tutor.  
  
"No," Ronnie replied, "that's something else that is different. In flag football, the lines are ten yards apart right?" Lizzie nodded her head although she was not exactly sure how far apart the lines were, but it sounded right. "And you have four chances to get across the next line regardless of wether you are one foot from that line or nine feet from it, right?" Again Lizzie nodded. "Here they have these two guys with bright orange poles on the sidelines. Those poles are connected with a ten yard long chain. They place one where the ball starts at, and then you have four tries to get the ball passed the other. So the announcer just told us that we have three more yards before we pass the second pole, and this will be our third attempt."  
  
Before Lizzie could reply, the ball was snapped for the third time. The quarterback handed the ball to Brad. "Brad's got the ball, GO BRAD GO!" Lizzie yelled.  
  
"Dude, he's their best running back, he's going to get the ball a lot," Ethan yelled over the crowd. Slowly the cries of the crowd became bigger as Brad evaded a series of tackles. As he began running down the field the crowd rose to their feet. "40... 35... 30...," Lizzie could here people around her yelling, "15... 10... 5... TOUCHDOWN!" The crowd erupted in cheers, as the band once again played the schools fight song.  
  
"AAAAAAHHHHH" Lizzie and Miranda screamed, piercing the eardrums of everyone within five feet. As the two jumped up and down, Miranda was screaming not only for the touchdown, but for her best friend. It had been a very long time since she had seen Lizzie this happy, and it was at that moment Miranda decided to put aside her feelings for Brad. "Anybody that can make Lizzie this happy," she thought, "can't be all bad."  
  
The cheers from the everybody in the crowd continued as the kicker kicked the ball through the goal and added another point to the scoreboard, save one. "I can do a better back handspring in my sleep." Kate stood solid as a statue with her arms crossed evaluating the cheer squad she failed to earn a spot on earlier that year.  
  
"DUDE," Ethan scolded, "when are you going to stop staring at the cheerleaders and watch the game like everyone else?"  
  
"Stop calling me dude," Kate demanded. "I am not going to stop until those two bit losers figure out that I am better than half of the girls on the squad and give me my spot on the team."  
  
Lizzie and Miranda watched the two argue as if it was a soap opera. Their relationship was classic high school pairings. They were together not because they belong together, it was because he was cute and a jock, and she was hot and a cheerleader.  
  
Soon the two girls attention was drawn away from their friends and back towards the field. Lizzie cheered loudly every time Brad handled the ball, and cringed every time a "stupid jerk" tackled him. All the while Ronnie explained everything that was happening.  
  
The first quarter ended with Hillridge High down 17 to 14, but a great punt return run by Brad quickly put the Norsemen up 21 to 17 early in the second. The second quarter continued like the first, each team fought heard for every yard, and the lead changed hands a few more times before the end of the half. "And that concludes the first half," the announcer stated as the teams left the field, "Hillridge Norsemen 34, Jenks Tigers 30."  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the announcer said a few minutes later, "now entering the field, ten time state champions, your Hillridge Regiment." Some people in the crowd gave standing ovations, while some could care less about the halftime show. On the field, a army of green clad band members walked perfectly in step onto the field, and soon came to rest. "Drum majors is your band ready?" the announcer asked. Lizzie recognized Eric standing between two girl, all three wearing black uniforms. The three made some elaborate choreographed gestures ending in a salute to the press box. "Hillridge Regiment, you may now take the field for exhibition performance."  
  
Eric stood on a high pedestal in front of the band and counted aloud. Following his lead the band began softly playing selections from the Spider-Man soundtrack and marching in time. Lizzie turned to Miranda, "I wonder where Dave and the other guys from trig are?"  
  
"How can you tell who is who?" Miranda asked. "Their has to be at least two hundred people down there."  
  
The band became louder, and their marching quickened. Soon, Lizzie noticed a group of eight players who where wearing rather strange instruments. The tubes wrapped over the players left shoulder and around their chest like a sash before fanning out into a large bell above their heads. The music from the band became even more louder as they reached the end of the first piece. As they did so the strange looking instruments were on the front sidelines, and Lizzie could see that they were struggling with their instruments after the band played the last note. One by one, they turned their tubas over so that the bell was by their side and for the first time their faces could be seen.  
  
"What's up the tubas," Ronnie asked to nobody in particular, "they are usually so perfect?"  
  
"Tubas," Lizzie gasped, "that is what Dave plays." Finally able to narrow her search, Lizzie scanned the bewildered faces in front of her. "There he is," she told Miranda pointing out the tuba third from the left.  
  
"Yep that's him," Miranda rolled her eyes as she replied. Miranda quickly sat up as she realized there was something wrong with Dave. "What's that on his face?"  
  
Lizzie had just noticed it to. Where Dave's lips were was a shiny silver object that looked like a beak. "They all have them," she replied, but before she could do more than scan the eight boys, they turned around as the band started their next song. "That's weird."  
  
"It's just the tubas." Ronnie explained. "They always are doing strange things." The explanation eased Lizzie's mind but Miranda really did not take interest in the subject.  
  
"I am going to the concession stand, you girls want anything?" Both girls nodded at Ronnie and gave him their order. After taking their money, Ronnie headed for the concessions.  
  
"You two seem to be getting along alright," Miranda pointed out.  
  
"Yeah he's nice," Lizzie dazedly replied. Lizzie's eyes remained fixed on Dave, watching him march in step and play his music. She recognized the first song as being from the opening credits, but the second one she did not know. It was slower than the first, and it felt to Lizzie like it was a love song. She could just imagine it playing every time Peter Parker looked at M. J. always wanting to tell her the truth, but never being able to do so, a feeling she new all to well.  
  
Miranda sat quietly as she stared at Lizzie and tried to figure out what was going on in her head. Her best fried seemed so caught up in the music that she did not dare disturb her, but something else did. Without breaking from her daze, Lizzie's eyed turned away from the field and towards a group os students leaving the stands. Miranda looked at the group and noticed that David was in the middle of it. They had come and gone many times during the first half, but this was the first time that either of the girls actually payed them any attention. Looking back at Lizzie, Miranda noticed the look on her face, a look that she had seen many times back in junior high. Lizzie's eyes were huge, and she was bitting her lower lip. It was a look of wanting, and Miranda new the desire of her friend.  
  
Lizzie broke the bite of her lower lip, and allowed her tongue to slip ever so slightly out of her mouth. Slowly she licked her top lip before her tongue reentered her mouth.  
  
BANG, the two girls jumped as the drummers began beating their drums wildly. The shock quickly pulled Lizzie out of her daze. "What was that?" Miranda asked.  
  
"What was what," Lizzie barked back, her lips returning to a frown. Miranda new better than to push a conversation when Lizzie was like this, so she quickly dropped the subject.  
  
The drums had announced the beginning of the band's third song. This one, like the first, was extremely fast pace and powerful, but unlike the first, it did not sound like it was an introduction, but more like a fight, a battle. It seemed that being unable to escape her fathers love of classical music this summer had rubbed off on her. As the song grew to a climax, Lizzie felt her heart pumping faster, and her blood boiling. At this moment she felt like she could take on anyone.  
  
Feeling uneasy, Lizzie closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. As she took a couple of deep breaths, she started hearing the chant of "tubas, tubas" from around her. Slowly the chant grew amongst the students. Unable to take anymore, Lizzie opened her eyes. While the rest of the band marched off lined up as if they were in a parade, the tubas were marching single file. Instead of heading strait for the exit, like everyone else, they were wondering around the field refusing to leave. A couple of times they headed for the exit, but turned around at the last minute. This caused the cheers from the crowd to grow even larger.  
  
"Ronnie was right," Miranda giggled. "Those tubas DO do strange things." A few minutes later the tubas reluctantly vacated the field under order of the football coach.  
  
Lizzie sat quietly in the stands, unable to laugh with her best friend at the situation below. The happy Lizzie had once again faded, and was locked deep inside her. For the rest of the night, Lizzie sat silently, only speaking occasionally to Miranda or to ask Ronnie a question about the game. She cheered when Brad scored another touchdown, and nearly threw a fit when he got injured late in the third quarter.  
  
As the game wore on, Miranda started to give up on Lizzie's attitude picking back up. She had been doing so well earlier, laughing, screaming, jumping up and down, but now it was back to good old "I hate the word" Lizzie. Late in the fourth quarter Miranda finally gave up. "You ready to go?"  
  
Lizzie looked at the scoreboard. Hillridge was now way ahead 55 to 30. Realizing that they had won, and that Brad would not be playing anymore she agreed to go. "Let me call my mom," she replied.  
  
With Lizzie's mom on the way to pick them up, the girls said goodby to Kate, Ethan, and Ronnie before made their way down the steep steps of the stadium. Just a few steps away from the bottom, Lizzie heard her name being called behind her. She turned around to see David standing on his seat.  
  
"Hey Lizzie," he yelled at her, "be careful the steps are steep. We wouldn't want you to fall all the way down." David started shanking his body, and leaning over as though he was about to fall down. He even pretended to fall off his seat, but landed safely on the concrete floor below. All around him his friends laughed an pointed at the little blond who stood furiously wanting to crush him. "Hey everybody," he yelled to the crowd, "clear the isle. Lizzie might fall on you." Lizzie just stared back at her former best friend, the entire time she tried to fight of a tear.  
  
"Come on, lets go," Lizzie heard Miranda tell her above the crowds laughter. The two finished their trip down the stairs without even a hint of falling. Once under the stadium, and out of David's sight, Miranda turned to Lizzie, "You alright?"  
  
"Yeah"  
  
"I am going to go find Larry and tell him we are leaving early. Why don't you go wait for your mom outside, I will meet you their in a few." Lizzie nodded, and Miranda turned to head back into the stands.  
  
Lizzie slowly headed for the exit, but noticed a group of band members standing outside the stadiums first-aid station. "Hey Dave," she called as she approached, "that was a great performance. How come the tubas never came back out?"  
  
Dave never answered, but as soon as Lizzie finished her question she noticed something was wrong. The skin around his lips were red and covered with small cuts and he had the worst case of chapped lips she had ever seen. It was not just him but the three other boys all had it to. "Oh my gosh," she gasped, "what happened?"  
  
A the other end of the stadium, Miranda was trying to cope with the bad news she had just heard. Just when she was willing to give Brad a try, Larry pulled her back into reality. He had juts told her that Brad was planning on embarrassing Lizzie sometime next week. As she rounded the bleachers she was trying to figure out how break the new to Lizzie, but instead found herself directly in the path of David and his crew. Normally she Miranda would stand her ground, and cheerfully exchange insults, but seeing that she was already furious with David, and knowing his plan, she decided to just lay low and step aside.  
  
David, being the newest member of the group, was positioned on the end of the mob and passed just feet from his former best friend. "Hey Miranda, what's going on?" he cheerfully asked as he passed. It was not until he had taken a few more steps that he realized what he had just said and his face went stone cold.  
  
"Excuse me," Miranda yelled as she bolted for David. Grabbing his arm, she flung him around to face her. Miranda had lost all self control she had and unleashed every ounce of hatred she had on David. "How can you even think of talking to me like that after everything you have done?" Letting her emotions take over, Miranda reached back and flung her arm forward with all her strength. Her open hand hit David's cheek with a loud SLAP.  
  
Wasting all her energy on the slap, Miranda waited for David to say something and giver her another reason to go off on him. She stared at him, daring him to join the fight, but he never did. The group stepped back, none of them wanting to get involved with the fight, it was going to be between David and Miranda, but it never came.  
  
David whipped the corner of his mouth with his thumb, and then took a long look at the small drop of blood on it. "Lets go," he said before turning around.  
  
"But dude she just....." one of the guys said, but was cut off.  
  
"I said lets go!" David ordered. He then continued on his original path, the rest of the group followed behind.  
  
A.N. I hope this chapter wasn't to bad. I have had a really heard time typing it up, because I get really bad football withdrawal every time I try to work on it. Well please review while I feed my addiction and watch a game from last year. 


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